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PriceAdvantage Announces New Fuel Pricing Software for Dealer and Company-Owned Convenience Stores(ACCESSWIRE (Canada) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Category: Baystreet Newswire Company: Accesswire-MRM ID: 419544 Date: Tuesday, August 26, 2014 Single Platform Enables The Parker Companies And Other Convenience Stores To Confidently Analyze Fuel Pricing Strategies With Analytics And Business Rules To Accommodate Market Variables COLORADO SPRINGS, CO / ACCESSWIRE / August 26, 2014 / PriceAdvantage, a fuel pricing software company and division of Skyline Products,is announcing version 2014.2 of its software. The new version gives company and dealer operated convenience stores a single platform to analyze complete wholesale, dealer and competitor fuel pricing strategies, manage pricing and margins, and revise pump prices and digital fuel signs in as little as five minutes. The new software expands on capabilities to help fuel analysts make informed gas pricing decisions. Rather than relying solely on algorithms to suggest price change proposals, PriceAdvantage offers the "best of both worlds"; the powerful combination of an economic model (analyzing competitive and historical fuel price statistics),coupled with strategies based on human insight to take advantage of, or be prepared for, market changes. Fuel analysts can build strategies with multiple business rules toaccount for rewards pricing in the market, historical volume performance, and current or historical margins. Then analysts can view economic model prices alongside strategy prices, as well as current traffic conditions, near real-time fuel volumes, and weather, to take into consideration situations like local events and construction that impact fuel sales. In addition, they can now manage fuel pricing for dealer stores by viewing side-by-side comparisons of wholesale, dealer retail and competitor prices and margins, revealing a complete picture of the overall market to ensure profitability across the entire company. "Fuel pricing has become increasingly more volatile, complex, and competitive. The ability to ensure strategies are using accurate competitor pricing information--taking into account cash, credit, and reward pricing--is more challenging than ever before. Yet, having the most informed pricing strategies can make or break a store, where even a penny on every gallon of gas sold can mean a difference of $3 million per year, or more. Incorporating business rules that account for a wide range of market variables, and executing pricing based on those strategies in minutes rather than hours or days, results in the right price at every store, and optimized profits," said Chip Stadjuhar, CEO at PriceAdvantage. "We are strong supporters of PriceAdvantage and are excited about using even more features to accurately review and monitor pricing and set consistent strategies. The software gives us instant insight into each market, and updates store prices in just seconds, so we can quickly capitalize on every market change. Intuitive reports allow us to better manage our fuel business, and alerts give us a heads up on important price changes. As a result, we see increases in profit per gallon, which more than justifies the software investment, several times over. We also appreciate the excellent customer service that backs it all up, and recommend it to others," said Jeff Bush, Director of Fuel Management at The Parker Companies. Additional new features of PriceAdvantage 2014.2 include: -Set pricing conditions such as number of cents above/below the current store or competitor price, enabling proposed prices within specified acceptable guard railsto be sent automatically, and those exceptions to be flagged for review. -Set and run multiple strategies against a single commodity, in order of priority, with no limit to the number that can be set. Specific rules can include: trusting a competitor price based on known reward discounts and survey frequency; instructing the system to follow one set of competitors when the market is going up andanother set when prices are going down; and considering how the store is performing from a historical sales or margin standpoint. -Intuitive maps incorporated into the software can show or hide prices on pushpins, provide real-time Google Map traffic speeds, and Google street views of stores and competitors. The new weather widget in the configurable Web dashboard shows forecasts from the National Weather Service so analysts can take weather into account when setting pricing strategies. -Near real-time visibility into how well pricing strategies are working, with the ability to weigh volume sales performance throughout the day with proposed prices and make adjustments as needed. Using patented technology licensed exclusively to Skyline Products, PriceAdvantage offers dealer and company owned convenience stores a robust end-to-end price change execution software solution aimed at maximizing fuel profits by getting the best price quickly to every stores. PriceAdvantage provides automation for the entire fuel pricing process from collection of competitive information, to sophisticated analysis for best price determination, to rapid speed-to-the-street price change execution andconfirmation feedback. Its mobile interface enables fuel analysts to use smart phones and tablets to react quickly to market changes and manage their fuel business remotelywhile away from their desk. About PriceAdvantage A division of Skyline Products, Inc., PriceAdvantage was founded in 2005 on the premise that fuel pricing is both an art and a science, balancing the importance of economic models with human knowledge of outside variables. PriceAdvantage's patented fuel pricing software helps dealer and company-owned convenience stores make the best, most informed fuel pricing decisions in less time by combining performance and competitive analysis with local area knowledge. PriceAdvantage offers the most complete end-to-end fuel price change execution software solution. The software automates the entire fuel pricing process from collecting competitive information, to performing sophisticated analysis for best price determination, to executing rapid speed-to-the-street price changes with price change confirmation feedback, all in a matter of minutes.Customers include: CST Brands, BJs, Rutter's, Flyers Energy, Parker's and more. PriceAdvantage is online at www.sellmoregas.com. Skyline Products and PriceAdvantage are trademarks of Skyline Products, Inc. Other company and/or product names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. # # # Media contact: Hilary McCarthy, Zenzi [email protected] (508) 829-2543 SOURCE: PriceAdvantage © 1998 - 2014 Baystreet.ca Media Corp. All rights reserved. |