by John Keller | Jun 27, 2013 | Customer News, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Software, Industry News, PriceAdvantage
More and more we’re seeing PriceAdvantage customers adapt GasBuddy OpenStore as their digital marketing solution. First it was Rutter’s, then it was Parker’s, followed by Family Express. CST Brands, formerly Valero, is the fourth PriceAdvantage customer to use both PriceAdvantage as their fuel software system for managing retail fuel prices, and GasBuddy OpenStore for digital marketing.
The synergy between the two solutions is powerful. When the fuel analyst pushes the optimized prices to the street, and the fuel price changes are completed at the POS, pumps and electronic price signs, the confirmation message is returned back to PriceAdvantage with a time and date stamp audit trail showing the exact time of completion.
Once the price changes are complete, PriceAdvantage through its integration automatically publishes the newest gas prices to GasBuddy OpenStore. From there the prices can be distributed to the various GasBuddy sites, making sure the latest and most accurate prices are on the GasBuddy map. This process also helps make sure every store appears on the GasBuddy map and doesn’t drop off due to a lack of price report updates.
PriceAdvantage offers a similar integration with OPIS, where upon completion and confirmation of the fuel price changes, PriceAdvantage publishes the latest price information to OPIS, from which the prices are distributed to the entire OPIS network including MapQuest, Garmin, and AAA.
Gas price signs have already moved from the old fashioned manual suction cup, to the electronic gas price sign, and are now adding the digital virtual sign seen on the Web. With PriceAdvantage and the integrations to GasBuddy OpenStore and OPIS, the price signs are current across every type, maximizing all marketing and branding efforts.
by John Keller | May 23, 2013 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Industry News
Congratulations to Greg Parker, President and CEO of The Parker Companies and PriceAdvantage customer, for being named one of Georgia’s Power Players by Georgia Trend Magazine. It has been quite a year for Mr. Parker, as he was awarded Top Tech Executive at the CSNews CIO/Tech Summit in April.
The Parker Companies have been using PriceAdvantage as their fuel software to manage all aspects of their retail fuel management solution. The Parker’s fuel management system includes price change confirmation to the VeriFone POS, pumps, Skyline electronic gas price signs, and GasBuddy OpenStore. This is all made possible by the one click technology that is unique to PriceAdvantage.
The PriceAdvantage team is proud to have Parker’s as a partner and we look forward to the days ahead, as together we progress what is possible in the future of the convenience store industry.
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 John Keller | Apr 30, 2013 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Industry News
Today Valero announced financial results for Q1 of this year, and it exceeded Wall Street expectations. From a fuel price management perspective, we’ll focus here on the retail division, now known as the company CST Brands.
The US Division of CST Brands had an operating income increase from $11 million in the first quarter of 2012 to $18 million in the first quarter of 2013, mainly due to higher fuel margins. Fuel margins per gallon increased from $.05 per gallon in 2012 to $0.08 per gallon in 2013. The gallons per day per site measurement held steady year over year, up slightly from 5,046 gallons per day per site in 2012 to 5,048 gallons per day per site in 2013.
The US Division of CST Brands has been using PriceAdvantage as their fuel price management system for all their retail stores since the fall of 2012. The average number of company-operated fuel sites for the quarter was 1033.
The Canadian division of CST Brands does not use PriceAdvantage as their fuel price management system. Fuel margins in Canada were the same year over year at $0.26 per gallon, but the total fuel volumes were down from 3.097 million gallons per day in 2012 to 2.987 gallons per day in 2013.
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.
by John Keller | Apr 5, 2013 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Industry News
Convenience Store News released their list of the “Top 20 Growth Chains” and three PriceAdvantage customers made the list.
Fikes Wholesale, the parent company of CEFCO Convenience Stores, made the list for the second straight time. They improved on their 10th place ranking in 2012 to a fifth place ranking in 2013. CEFCO added 61 new stores last year, a 31% increase year over year, bringing their total count to 255 stores as of December 2012. CEFCO has been using PriceAdvantage as their complete fuel price management solution for over three years.
Valero Corner Stores has also made the list for two straight years, ranking eighth in both 2012 and in 2013. In 2013, Valero Corner Stores added 34 stores, bringing their total company owned store count in the US to 1030 as of December 2012. Valero rolled out PriceAdvantage to all their stores in 2012.
Sheetz is another repeat c-store chain on the list with a 2013 ranking of 12th, an improvement from their ranking of 17th in 2012. Sheetz added 23 stores last year, bringing their total store count to 434 as of December 2012. Sheetz has been using PriceAdvantage for their fuel pricing since 2009.
The PriceAdvantage team is proud to have such strong partnerships with CEFCO, Valero, and Sheetz, and we are proud to share in their success.