by John Keller | Oct 10, 2013 | Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Fuel Pricing Technology, Industry News
In a recent ZDNet article titled “The future of retail is dynamic pricing. So why can’t we get it right?”, a panel of ‘dynamic pricing’ experts representing companies including Best Buy and Ace Hardware provide lessons learned that can be applied to retail fuels pricing. Here are the highlights, and some thoughts on how they’re directly applicable to retail fuels pricing.
- It has become very easy for customers to research prices. For retail fuels pricing, this customer research has extended beyond the physical sign to the virtual price sign, as in GasBuddy, and all the OPIS-fed sites like MapQuest, Garmin, and AAA. How can you be sure these virtual price signs are always accurate? With PriceAdvantage, use the OPIS and GasBuddy exports as part of the fuel price change confirmation, and rest easy that every time a price change is complete, all these online sites are brought up to date.
- Retailers now have access to mainstream technology that allows them to quickly respond to market changes and make price changes at a moment’s notice, thereby insuring that their prices are always relevant. But this “change management” can be complex to execute effectively. In the retail fuels arena, this speaks to the difference between responding to a market change with a proclamation of a price change to your stores, and responding to a market change with a well executed automatic price change that includes confirmation and an audit trail upon completion. The PriceAdvantage SMART Fuel Pricing patented technology works with your Gilbarco, NCR, VeriFone, and AutoGas POS, along with your electronic price signs, to insure that every price change is executed within the compliance of the weights and measures regulations.
- The key to success is the right foundational data with the best information you can get, so you can have the best execution of your strategy, aligning pricing with the brand, and with your position in the market. In retail fuels management, that means carefully monitoring cost and competitor information from multiple sources including agents in the field and OPIS. And it means routinely reporting on historical pricing to make sure your pricing is where you want it to be relative to the competition, whether that is low price leader, middle of the pack, or premium experience. This strategy needs to be monitored not only on a store by store basis, but on a zone by zone basis, according to differences from market to market and convenience of location. In some areas pricing will need to be more aggressive, without giving fuel away across the entire enterprise.
These retail giants have a lot of wisdom to share, and it is all relevant to the retail fuels industry. PriceAdvantage allows you to apply the wisdom of these giants, without having to invest millions in the technology they use.
by John Keller | Oct 7, 2013 | Fuel Pricing Technology, Industry News
In yet another indication that CNG is gaining visibility in the c-store retails fuel product portfolio, Gilbarco announced plans to feature their new Encore CNG dispenser at the upcoming NACS show in Atlanta next week.
Gilbarco touts the new dispenser as offering fuel retailers the opportunity to take advantage of higher retail fuel margins, and the increasing popularity of clean alternative fuels. Key aspects of overall customer satisfaction when customers move from traditional to alternative fuels include a familiar refueling experience, especially a comparable fill rate. The new Gilbarco Encore CNG dispenser offers both. And for the fuel retailer, the new Gilbarco Encore CNG dispenser provides a seamless upgrade path including integration with the forecourt controller, thereby integrating fully with existing payment and loyalty systems. PriceAdvantage SMART fuel software integrates with Gilbarco to provide full roundtrip confirmation that retail fuel prices have been changed at the POS, sign and pump.
Last year at NACS we saw GE unveil the “CNG in a box” retail solution. Since then we have seen announcements of fuel retailers entering the CNG retail fuels market, and plans for CNG highways to be built. With the new Gilbarco CNG dispenser, one of the largest players in retail fuels adds to the mindshare and momentum of CNG.
by John Keller | Jul 24, 2013 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Technology, Industry News
A new Mobile Path to Purchase study based on a survey from 2000 US smart phone and tablet users reinforces the importance of fuel retailers keeping their retail fuel prices current on mobile gas price sites. Gas was the answer given for the type of search by 90% of smartphone users and 87% of tablet users who were asked why did they go to the location to make a purchase. Gas price and location were the key elements of these mobile search conversions.
Industry leader xAd and long-time partner and call measurement provider Telmetrics have partnered to release first-to-market Mobile Path-to-Purchase research studies conducted by The Nielsen Company. The studies dissect consumer mobile usage and purchase behavior related to the Travel, Restaurant, Auto, Retail, Insurance, Banking & Finance and Gas & Convenience industry verticals.
The results of these studies provide valuable insights into the mobile tools utilized in the process of research and decision, and strong mobile user intent to purchase.
“Mobile is the dominant media used in this on-the-go [gas and convenience] category and while searchers are making most decisions within an hour, they are paying attention to advertising and taking time to conduct price and location searches,” said Monica Ho, vice president of marketing at xAd.
The gas and convenience retail category has nearly a 90% conversion rate for mobile users who ultimately make a purchase. “With some of the heaviest app usage and highest conversion rates we’ve seen in our Mobile Path-to-Purchase research series, it is important that gas and convenience advertisers work with marketing providers that ensure their businesses can be found in apps in addition to mobile sites,” said Bill Dinan, president of Telmetrics. “Advertisers have a chance to drive more purchases by ensuring their mobile presence is optimized with location and pricing [information].”
From a fuel price management perspective, this study drives home the point that publishing fuel prices to the “virtual signs” on the web is critical for bringing more traffic to the store. The patented PriceAdvantage SMART fuel pricing solution provides the ability to publish gas prices to OPIS and GasBuddy so that stores appear on the gas price search apps, and display the proper prices to the mobile audience.
by John Keller | May 8, 2013 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Technology, Industry News
On the second day of THE Tech EVENT put on by NACS, Scott Hartman, CEO and president of Rutter’s Farm Stores, and long-time PriceAdvantage customer (and user of the software), spoke about convenience store technology trends.
“Now we can data mine everything that happens in the store,” he said. “I can change my digital gasoline signs from my iPhone or iPad.”
Rutter’s has been using PriceAdvantage to set retail fuel prices at their stores and electronic Skyline signs since 2011. Mr. Hartman uses GasBuddy OpenStore on his mobile device to send prices to PriceAdvantage, leaving PriceAdvantage to take care of the fuel price management change and confirmation processes to the NCR POS and Skyline signs.
PriceAdvantage can then broadcast the latest prices out to GasBuddy and OPIS so that all social media and websites have the latest store price information, and company stores always appear on the map.
Scott Hartman’s ongoing commitment to and success with c-store technology has made him an inductee into the PCATS Hall of Fame. We at the PriceAdvantage team are honored to be associated with such a c-store technology icon and we look forward to our mutual ongoing success.
by Grant Garrison | May 2, 2013 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Fuel Pricing Technology
Speed is one of the key components of pricing optimization, as reacting to market changes faster than competitors will always keep retail fuels managers ahead of the game. Tracking the pricing strategy of all local competition enables chains to meet consumer demand with greater accuracy and efficiency. The days of sending a rep to drive around and check the prices at other stations are long gone. Now, the best possible method of ensuring pricing optimization is with application of a fuel pricing software solution.
Software offers many benefits which are unavailable with traditional fuel price analysis. Trying to track price changes via a self-developed system leads to headaches and aggravation for everyone involved. No department can be expected to become the go-to source for fuel pricing information. Tracking and recording all the changing data with in-house tools will gradually increase in complexity until it builds to total chaos. Instead of that, software pricing integration tools provide a one-stop hub where managers can access the data they need and apply it to their pricing strategy.
In order to effectively track competitor price changes, companies should obtain access to data provided by a resource such as the OPIS Radius Report. This real-time information service can gather retail fuels prices for all competitor stations within a region. Be it a 2-mile, 5-mile, or 10-mile radius, managers can use these tools to track fuel prices history in their operating environment and respond to price changes without ever leaving headquarters. It’s easier and more intelligent than it’s ever been to monitor the competition, understand their pricing strategy, and beat them to the market.
Price tracking technology has completely changed the way in which we size up the competition in the retail fuels market. Pricing reports can now be integrated with software such as PriceAdvantage to pull content directly from the report and present the data in an easily understandable interface. Making intelligent pricing decisions is no longer a complex, labor intensive task, but an effortless one. Managers can now maximize their pricing optimization by gathering the data online, porting it into comprehensive software solutions, and then instantly push any price changes to the street.
This capability to instantly visualize competitor behavior gives even non tech-savvy managers an edge in their market. It gives them the tools to react to trends and market shifts before the competition even knows what they’re doing. By the time other regional chains utilizing outdated software can react to these new conditions, the company with the right tools can be leapfrogging them to the next trend.
Don’t settle for substandard systems or business processes. Technology has made it easier than ever before to define strategy and outmaneuver competitors. Stop chasing prices and make the competition start chasing you!
by John Keller | Apr 10, 2013 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Pricing Technology, Industry News
Congratulations to Greg Parker for winning the Convenience Store News Top Tech Executive award. The PriceAdvantage team is proud to have Greg Parker, CEO, and all the staff of Parker Companies as a business partner.
Parker’s has been using PriceAdvantage as their fuel pricing software system since 2011. Soon after implementing PriceAdvantage with the VeriFone POS systems and Skyline electronic price signs at all their stores, Parker’s extended the implementation to GasBuddy OpenStore.
The Parker Companies implementation of PriceAdvantage was listed by Convenience Store News as one of the reasons why Greg Parker won the award. And that makes sense, as this implementation includes all four quadrants of the fuel price management process including:
- collection of cost information from PDI and competitor survey prices from store managers
- rich analytics in PriceAdvantage reports and analysis views
- price changes to the store signs, POS and pumps, and GasBuddy
- confirmation from PriceAdvantage that all price changes have completed
We in the PriceAdvantage division of Skyline Products appreciate the opportunity to work with Greg Parker and the Parker Companies, and we look forward to a long time partnership for years to come.
