by John Keller | Aug 30, 2013 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
According to today’s OPIS report, retail fuel margin averages across the United States fell for the second straight week. This week retail fuel margins decreased $0.018 per gallon and now stand at $0.169 per gallon.
The year to date average dipped slightly to $0.181 per gallon. The Q2 average also slipped, to an average margin of $0.199 per gallon. The six week average stands at $0.203 per gallon and the average margin since Memorial Day is $0.204.
Retail margins this year are $0.025 per gallon higher than this time last year.
With the Syrian conflict in all the news and the rising cost of crude, there was fear of tanking retail fuel margins heading into the Labor Day holiday, but it looks like the c-store retail industry will be able to survive this weekend with reasonable margins and head into the next season with a solid year to date margin average.
by John Keller | Aug 30, 2013 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Industry News
For eight years, CSNews has been recognizing the most innovative convenience store chains in the industry with the annual CSNews design awards. This year these CSNews awards include four PriceAdvantage customers: CST Brands, Cruizers, High’s, and Parker’s.
The CST Brands store in Harris County Texas won Best Interior Design. CST Brands (formerly known as Valero) uses PriceAdvantage as their retail fuel software for all their company-owned stores across the United States. The CST Brands fuel price management solution includes fuel price optimization, an integration with GasBuddy OpenStore, and roundtrip price change confirmation to the VeriFone POS and Skyline electronic price signs.
Cruizers won Honorable Mention for a remodel in Raleigh North Carolina. The Cruizers implementation of PriceAdvantage is in the cloud and includes roundtrip price change confirmation to the Gilbarco Passport POS.
High’s won Best Mid-Budget Remodel for their project completed in Edgewater Maryland. High’s uses PriceAdvantage as their retail fuel software across all their stores with complete price change confirmation to the VeriFone and NCR Radiant POS systems.
Parker’s won Best Fountain Presentation for their store in Garden City Georgia. The Parker’s implementation of PriceAdvantage fuel software is also in the cloud, and includes roundtrip price change confirmation to the VeriFone POS and Skyline electronic price signs. The Parker’s solution also includes an integration to GasBuddy OpenStore.
All four of these PriceAdvantage award winners have their fuel price software solution integrated with PDI.
The PriceAdvantage team is proud to have such industry innovators as partners, and we’d like to offer our congratulations to all of them.
by John Keller | Aug 29, 2013 | Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
According to a recent CNBC article, next year we can expect to see a lot more diesel cars on the roads across the US. The 2014 US model year should have double the selection of previous years, with 40 diesel models on the market by the end of 2014. Diesel SUV’s are likely to see the biggest increase in sales.
For a long while, Volkswagen has had the majority of diesel models in the US. But GM is planning to offer new diesel models, as is Chrysler, Mazda, Nissan and Audi. Some experts predict that by 2018 diesel vehicle sales could represent 10% of all new vehicle sales.
Diesel technology typically boosts mileage by 30%, helping auto manufacturers meet federal mileage regulations. These regulations require a combined 39 mpg fuel mileage rating in the window across their model offerings by 2025.
Many diesel models can go 600 to 800 miles on a single tank, dramatically altering the behavior of gasoline consumers who stop to fill up twice as often as these models.
What does this mean from a fuel price management perspective? First, it may be a good time to start planning to add diesel to your product offering if you don’t already offer it, especially if your stores are in an area where SUV’s and trucks are popular. Second, monitor the ratio of diesel fuel sales to gasoline fuel sales from a historical perspective, and see if the current sales trends are tipping the balance in the favor of Diesel. If it hasn’t started yet, depending on your markets, you’re likely to see the shift over the next five years and beyond.
by John Keller | Aug 28, 2013 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Pricing Software, Industry News
According to AAA, there will be a 4.3% increase in Americans driving 50 miles or more from home this Labor Day holiday. That means between Thursday and Monday we can expect to see more travelers than any year since the recession. The number of Americans driving 50 miles or more is expected to reach 29.2 million, up from 28 million last year.
From a fuel price management perspective, when comparing this year’s numbers to last year’s, it’s important to monitor fuel volumes compared to the same days of week last year, not same date, in order to make sure you are getting your share of the increased pie this weekend. Strategies may including sitting with slightly higher margins in order to make the most of the weekend, in the face of increased traffic. Or they may include going for volume to make up for lost opportunities earlier in the year.
The key takeaway is to be prepared with best-in-class fuel pricing software to make quick pricing adjustments as needed, in order to maximize the great opportunity this weekend provides. Oh, and on a personal note, it’s best to have access to this fuel pricing software insight from a mobile device so you can have some fun this weekend, too.
by John Keller | Aug 28, 2013 | Customer News, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Software
The PriceAdvantage team would like to congratulate Parker’s on their grand opening of two new c-stores. These new stores bring the total Parker’s count to 32.
Parker’s rolled out PriceAdvantage with an integration to GasBuddy OpenStore, their VeriFone POS system, and Skyline electronic price signs in January of this year. Since then Parker’s has opened three new stores in just seven short months.
Greg Parker, CEO of Parker Companies said, “Parker’s stores strive to be recognized for quality products at competitive prices and now we can communicate our fuel prices faster and easier in a matter of minutes through PriceAdvantage and OpenStore, both at the store and online.”
Parker’s operates their PriceAdvantage system in the cloud, allowing them to allocate IT resources to other areas.
by Grant Garrison | Aug 26, 2013 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Software, PriceAdvantage
Everybody’s out there looking for pennies: Fuel customers are using mobile apps and will make challenging left turns for the promise of saving just a few pennies on a fill-up. Amid this, fuel retailers look for ways to wring a few pennies of profit from the sale. It’s a game won or lost on small increments, and folks on both sides of the counter know that those pennies add up.
In the past few years, discovering the “sweet spot” that brings customers off the street and grows fuel sale volume and profit has become easier. OPIS- and PDI-integrated tools let everybody from single-store operators to chains with hundreds of locations quickly access real-time competitive data. With a click, they can know which stores or regions are underperforming. They can easily see where they’re making the most or least money and where their pricing is getting beat by competitors down the street or miles away.
Real-time insight into volume, margin, and gallon performance gives leaders the ammunition they need to formulate an agile pricing strategy—on a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. But that’s only half the battle. That price now has to go to every POS, pump, and sign in every store. And the longer it takes the more money you lose.
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