by John Keller | Mar 5, 2014 | Customer News, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Fuel Pricing Technology, Fuel Software
PriceAdvantage, a division of Skyline Products, announced today that J & H Oil has chosen PriceAdvantage SMART Fuel Pricing as their fuel price management solution.
J & H Oil is running PriceAdvantage in the cloud, eliminating the need for their IT resources to maintain their system.
“We have been searching for ways to improve our overall pricing process, including speeding up survey collections, and eliminating price change errors. After a thorough comparison and evaluation process, including a successful pilot, we are excited to select PriceAdvantage as our retail fuels software. We elected to include PriceAdvantage because we believe it will allow us to understand market and store performance, adjust our strategies as needed, and give us the competitive edge,” said Craig Hoppen, President of J & H Oil.
“We are glad to have J & H as a cloud customer and to know that PriceAdvantage is already improving their retail fuels business,” said Chip Stadjuhar, CEO of Skyline Products. “PriceAdvantage is ideal for automating the retail fuels pricing process, and ensuring that the right price is at the right store, all the time”, Stadjuhar added.
by John Keller | Jan 28, 2014 | Customer News, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Technology, Fuel Software
The PriceAdvantage team is pleased to announce that J & H Oil has joined the PriceAdvantage family. J & H Oil is running PriceAdvantage in the cloud, a configuration that has become quite popular with our customers over the past 12 months. The cloud configuration, also known as “Software as a Service”, frees up company IT resources because the server maintenance responsibility rests with the PriceAdvantage team.
J & H Oil is a family owned and operated company running 36 company operated convenience stores in West Michigan. J & H Oil had a rigorous evaluation process for their fuels pricing solution, including a pilot of running PriceAdvantage in the real world. J & H Oil found PriceAdvantage to be the best way to improve the speed at which they collect competitor information, and to make sure all price changes are accurate. J & H Oil also found the SNAP Analytics in PriceAdvantage to be quite valuable, so they elected to include that in their implementation.
We at PriceAdvantage look forward to a strong and long-term partnership with J & H Oil – welcome to the family!
by John Keller | Jan 14, 2014 | Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Technology, Fuel Software, PriceAdvantage
The PriceAdvantage team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of version 2013.3. This version is a result of numerous feature requests from our customers.
Here are a few highlights of this new release.
- Display competitor survey prices based on the most reliable source on a store by store basis. In some cases the store may reflect the most accurate competitor prices using OPIS alone, while in other cases it may be best to display both OPIS and PriceAdvantage survey prices side by side for validation. You decide which source is best for which store.
- The new Volume Correlation report shows the trend of fuel volumes and prices with a configurable set of non-fuel metric options imported from PDI. This report helps determine the market profile of each store and the elasticity between fuels and in-store merchandise product categories such as food.
- The new Margin Percentage report shows calculated price with fuel volumes, and margin as percentage of price. This allows you to see side by side margins expressed as both cents per gallon and percentage of price, bridging the gap between traditional fuel pricing teams focused on retail fuels, and marketing groups who typically focus on non-fuel product categories.
- PriceAdvantage Web has a new menu navigation system, as well as analysis views, scheduled price changes, and a map view showing all stores and all competitors.
PriceAdvantage customers can contact their sales representatives to discuss upgrade options. Work is already well underway for version 2014.1 – stay tuned for more exciting capabilities, developed in close partnership with all our customers. We couldn’t do it without you!
by John Keller | Dec 13, 2013 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Fuel Pricing Technology, Fuel Software
The PriceAdvantage team is excited to announce the successful implementation of Telapoint SmartReplenish with PriceAdvantage, where fuel volumes are pushed from SmartReplenish to PriceAdvantage, allowing fuel analysts to quickly adjust fuel pricing strategies based on near real-time fuel sales.
With access to near real-time fuel inventories, fuel managers are using PriceAdvantage to adjust pricing strategies mid-way through the day based on how many gallons have been sold through a milestone period in the day such as the morning commute. If volume sales for the day are low at the noon hour, the fuel manager may decide to adjust fuel prices lower to be more aggressive during the evening commute and recover the lost volumes. Or if sales are robust and inventories are low, the fuel manager may decide to raise prices in order to make sure there is enough inventory to meet demand until the next fuel delivery. Instead of waiting for fuel volume sales information to be updated the day following the close of business, this integration makes the information available the same day.
This integration comes at the specific request of several mutual customers of PriceAdvantage and SmartReplenish who need to optimize fuel prices more and more rapidly in response to the ever increasing volatility and pace at which things change in fuels price management. This integration is already in production at customer sites and is available immediately for any fuels business with both PriceAdvantage and SmartReplenish.
by John Keller | Dec 6, 2013 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Pricing Technology, Fuel Software
According to the Wall Street Journal, the private-equity owners of BJ’s Wholesale have inquired about purchasing the chain of Hess c-stores and pairing them with the BJ’s Wholesale clubs. Hess had 1361 stations at the end of last year.
BJ’s Wholesale uses PriceAdvantage as their retail fuel software solution across all their clubs. The BJ’s implementation includes price changes with their POS system and electronic price signs. Says Scott Margherio, Vice President, Manager of Fuel & Automotive Operations of BJ’s Wholesale Club, “We used to spend a good part of the morning collecting surveys, inputting data into a spreadsheet and then submitting prices to the clubs. Now we are able to make price changes in under an hour, instantly receiving a confirmation that it has been completed, correctly.”
BJ’s reports the PriceAdvantage system saves roughly 3-4 hours per day in time management as well as costly pricing errors.
by John Keller | Nov 21, 2013 | Fuel Pricing Technology, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
Hyundai just announced that beginning in the spring of 2014, they will make available hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the limited US markets of Los Angeles and Orange County. Hyundai will offer these vehicles through selected dealers for $499/month over a 36 month term, with $2999 down. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the offer is that the deal comes with unlimited free hydrogen refueling. That part of the deal is designed to remove any range anxiety of the potential buyer, something that continues to inhibit many who are considering buying electric vehicles. And if there is ever a problem with the fuel cell, Hyundai will pickup the vehicle and provide a loaner, then deliver the vehicle back to the customer’s home or business at no charge after the service is complete.
The initial set of dealers are in Tustin, Anaheim, Carson, and Van Nuys. More Hyundai dealers will follow as the program gains traction and spreads across the US as more hydrogen refueling stations are made available. According to the California Station Map, in California there are currently 9 hydrogen fueling stations available to the public, 19 hydrogen fueling stations in development, and 12 stations that are private or for demonstration purposes.
The announcement from Hyundai touts the advantages of fuel cell vehicles, calling them the next generation of electric vehicles. Not only do these vehicles provide a 300 mile driving range, comparable to petroleum based vehicles, but they are rated lower than electric vehicles for their well-to-wheel emissions rating. And here’s the kicker for the c-store fuel manager: these vehicles are capable of refueling in under 10 minutes, “similar to gasoline”, according to the Hyundai announcement.
No doubt this is a program geared toward the early adopter. And it’s not likely that next year will be the year to add hydrogen fuel to your fuels portfolio. But it is an important milestone to record; from here on in we will watch the reality of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles unfold into mainstream.
Yet to be determined: what kind of margins can the retail fuel marketer expect to see in a hydrogen fuel offering?
