Reviewing Retailers’ Concerns

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- KSS Fuels met with more than 70 fuel and convenience retailers at the recent NACS Show in Las Vegas, and most expressed common concerns over gasoline price volatility, static or falling demand and thin margins. On a more positive note, the same retailers reported significant up-take in technology as a result of more cloud-based solutions that are reducing barriers to entry and lowering acquisition and maintenance costs.

Continuing its close connection to retailer and fuels marketer business issues, KSS Fuels promoted the following key themes at the NACS Show:

• Managing volatility. Major, frequent changes in product costs are the primary cause of price volatility at the pump. Dealing with volatility requires two critical components: a fast, responsive pricing process to minimize reaction times to market and competitor price changes, and pricing analytics to help justify price decisions and explore options when changes occur.
• Understanding consumer demand. A comprehensive, up-to-date database of retail site locations, traffic counts and consumer demographics can help retailers gain insight into consumer demand for fuels, inside sales and car wash and how it is distributed across their own and competitor sites.
• Cloud solutions lower the barriers to entry for smaller operators to adopt technology solutions that help them compete more effectively in today's demanding markets. Growing maturity and trust in cloud-based solutions enable operators of all sizes to acquire technology at much lower cost and reduce the effort and cost of maintaining them.

"Our discussions with retailers at the NACS show highlighted the challenges many retailers are facing today, and with no immediate let-up in sight, many of them are looking to apply business intelligence and advanced analytics to their data to see if they can find answers," said Bob Stein, president and CEO of KSS Fuels. "Many have spent considerable time and money gathering data and are looking to suppliers like KSS Fuels to help with the analytics they need to extract actionable information."

KSS Fuels, Florham Park, N.J., is a global leader in fuels pricing and retail location intelligence, with proven software, analytics and consulting solutions that draw upon more than 40 years of expertise and insight into the needs and opportunities of petroleum retailers.