KSS Outlines Strategies for Defending Fuel Market Share

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Technology software provider KSS Fuels published a white paper defining strategies for fuel retailers looking to create sustainable market growth.

Called "Winning the Battle For Market Share," the white paper first discusses how retailers cannot increase market share through fuel prices alone.

"To increase fuel volume through price alone would mean lowering price significantly against competition, lowering margins and triggering competitor response," reads the document. "In our experience, this strategy leads to local price wars and a 'chase to the bottom,' where no suppliers win and any short-term impact on fuel volume is quickly rebalanced."

Instead, KSS' white paper offers other ways for fuel retailers to increase market growth. Among them is location intelligence, a name given to a class of business intelligence tools capable of analyzing market and consumer data to build-up a quantified picture of local market demand and the way that demand is distributed among competing suppliers.

"One of these tools is called LocationXpert," reads the white paper. "It analyzes demographics, traffic and site attribute data to deliver two key pieces of information -- how much total fuel volume demand there is in a market and what share of that demand should I be capturing vs. competition."

According to Bob Stein, president and CEO of KSS, the white paper is the result of many of its clients asking for ways to help manage market share more effectively.

"They recognize the risks of only using price to influence market share and believe there's more to be learned from analyzing their data," he said. "As we can now prove, the answers lie in using an approach supported by business intelligence tools dedicated to fuel retailing, known as location intelligence, to understand and quantify consumer behavior."

To view the white paper in its entirety, visit Florham Park, N.J.-based KSS Fuels' website at www.kssfuels.com.