A gas station chain gets its fill with near-real-time data

SOLUTION

Hello, analytics-based pricing decisions

Without intelligent and actionable data, companies often take shots in the dark.

In fact, according to PwC CEO survey, 95% of the respondents define the data about their customers’ needs and preferences as a critical part of informed decision making, while only 21% classify the data that they use as comprehensive.

Pricing wars are like football: Teams study their opponents and hit the field anticipating potential plays. Similarly, a gas station's success hinges on understanding the competition and anticipating next moves.

Previously, the gas station chain tried to manually monitor its competitors—over 2,000 companies. It was a costly and time-consuming process.

The solution, built on the Microsoft Azure-powered Analytics Foundation, doubled down on competitive intel. Leaders at the company are now able to more precisely understand the landscape and use data to make decisions and price changes.

Opening up to experimentation

To start, we picked a handful of the chain’s gas stations and pulled their data using the Analytics Foundation, showcasing its ability to quickly deliver valuable insights.

The teams dug into the data, stacking surprising findings against typical operations. The deviations helped the teams see where they should shift their attention to glean customer and market-share trends.

It also set the stage for analytics-driven experimentation. For example, we helped identify a competitor who wasn’t on one store's radar, which enabled it to price its fuel accordingly. The margin may seem insignificant—five to 10 cents a gallon—but could translate to almost $200,000 in annual profit per location. Similar insights across even a fraction of the client’s over 200 stores will surely lead to material incremental profits.

Closing the information gap

Manual data tracking and assessment is unbelievably time-consuming to sift through and often riddled with errors. That’s no longer a top concern for the gas station chain.

Together, we iterated on numerous designs and worked to craft an interface. Powered by Microsoft Azure’s secure, flexible technology, Analytics Foundation ingests more than 60 million mobile device data points every day. We also baked in customer demographics data, like whether shoppers are price-minded, convenience-driven or brand-loyal.

Using a blend of custom and pre-built components, the platform combines information and insights from disparate sources to help close the chain’s information gap and drive success. The technology also harmonizes and structures the information, so employees don't struggle to make sense of it.

RESULTS

Mobile-device data leads to pricing action

Our client redefined key competitors in each of their store’s geographic areas and can now more accurately price against them. They’re also tracking millions of mobile-device data points every day to understand how and when customers shop. While the magnitude of information processed is robust, the tool automatically maps it so it can be immediately used. That’s especially important in light of the pandemic.

Will consumers revert to pre-pandemic behaviors or are the COVID-19 buying patterns here to stay? Analytics Foundation will help the gas station chain answer that question and many more like it as new queries come to light daily.