by John Keller | Oct 5, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
Just how important is the c-store industry to the American economy, and the retail fuel industry specifically? Take a look at these statistics from an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, as reported by NACS Online:
- There are 144,500 convenience stores in the USA as of 2010
- Total convenience store US sales for 2009 was $511 billion
- The average convenience store selling fuel sees 1,100 customers per day
- Convenience stores have an 80 percent share of the gasoline market
On a related note, in a Balvor/NACS Motor Fuels Retail Survey, fuel retailers surveyed sold an average of over 125,000 gallons of fuel per month.
Clearly the c-store industry plays a critical role in the daily lives of American consumers.
by John Keller | Sep 14, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Retail Fuel Margins
According to NACS Online, demand for Diesel fuel in the US is on the rise, while demand for E85 is on the decline.
While still not at its 2006 peak demand where it reached 4% of the fuel market, demand for Diesel this year is back up to 2.2% of the market, with a projected increase of 2.9% by 2013.
Meanwhile, E85 has fallen from its 2008 peak down to 1.4% market share this year. Supporters of E85 explain the decrease on what they see as a standard cyclical pattern of E85 fuel use, impacted by the relative price of gasoline.
While these statistical numbers are valid across the US as a whole, each Fuel Manager must carefully monitor trends of Diesel and E85 on a market by market basis. For example, the largest US branded retail chain of E85 is Cenex, and they report a 20% increase in E85 this year. In Minnesota, however, E85 is down 25% from its peak level in 2008.
Only by carefully monitoring trends in in each of his markets can the Fuel Manager be sure his Fuel Price Management strategies are being successful.
by John Keller | Sep 13, 2010 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Software, PriceAdvantage
CEFCO C-Stores has completed their rollout of PriceAdvantage to 100% of their stores as of September 10, 2010. CEFCO is now using PriceAdvantage fuel pricing software to optimize fuel prices at each of their 124 stores throughout Texas, Alabama and Mississippi. Total time for the rollout with field training was under three months, including configuration to automatically push prices from Headquarters to stores which use the VeriFone POS. Next up for CEFCO is configuring PriceAdvantage to automatically push prices to those stores which use the Gilbarco Passport POS.
by John Keller | Sep 9, 2010 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Technology, PriceAdvantage
PriceAdvantage 3.3 is the latest fuels price management solution from Skyline Products and provides a fully web-based version that allows access from any mobile web-enabled phone or iPad. Volume targeting and performance measurements by day of the week, month, year-to-date are included. Enterprise global navigation enhancements are also part of this new version.
PriceAdvantage Web may be accessed by any browser on any device, including iPad, iPhone, Droid tablet, PC, Mac, or BlackBerry.
by John Keller | Sep 8, 2010 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Management Solutions
Convenience Store News reported Casey’s General Stores fiscal year 2011 first quarter results. Included in these results are interesting benchmarks for fuel price management comparisons:
- Total gallons sold was 358.6 million gallons, up 6.8 percent
- Average retail fuel margin was 16.4 cents per gallon
- Fuel gross profit was $58.9 million, 11% higher than the same period a year ago
- Same-store fuel gallons sold was up 1.5 percent
How do your fuel price management results compare to Casey’s?
by John Keller | Sep 7, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy
CSP Daily News reported today the findings of a new Nielsen online survey. The survey results directly speak to fuel price management strategies at c-stores:
- 45% of households are “diligently seeking” lower fuel prices
- 63% of households combat high fuel prices by combining errands and trips
- 85% of households buy their fuel from c-stores /gas stations
- 79% of customers who buy fuel from c-stores / gas stations do so because of lower fuel prices
- 67% of customers who buy fuel from c-stores / gas stations do so because of the convenient location
- 14% of customers who buy fuel from c-stores /gas stations do so because of shopper loyalty programs
These results may not reveal revolutionary new insights into the customer behavior of buying fuel, but they do reinforce key aspects of well-known fuel pricing strategies:
- Location matters – shoppers will fuel up at your location as part of a broader errand run, especially if it truly is at a convenient location
- People’s fuel buying habits have not switched out of recession mode – they’re still shopping around for the best fuel price
As retail businesses come and go, so do consumer traffic patterns. Fuel price optimization strategies must adjust to react to these traffic patterns. Sometimes Fuel Managers can even use lower fuel prices to proactively alter these traffic patterns. Successful Fuel Managers rely more than ever on fuel pricing software such as PriceAdvantage to reveal the relative success of their fuel price adjustments.
