How a Fuel Retailer Priced Fuel to Fill the Store, Not Just the Tank
Use case Fuel-to-store conversionFuel and convenience retailer, 52 sites
How a fuel retailer priced fuel to fill the store, not just the tank.
A price war had the team cutting fuel at every site. Cortex showed the cut only paid back where drivers walked inside, and exactly when they did.
“Should we keep matching the 6-cent cuts?” → one question to Cortex AI
01 · The challenge
Six cents off everywhere, for a store that didn’t always benefit.
Two rivals had cut prices across the metro. The team matched at all 52 sites, on the belief that cheaper fuel brings more people into the store.
Fuel volume rose, but fuel margin fell by more. Inside sales barely moved, and no report connected a pump transaction to what happened at the register.
Before Cortex
What the team saw first
- Fuel volume+8% after the match
- Fuel margin−6¢ a gallon, every site
- Inside salesFlat, network-wide
- InstinctKeep matching to protect traffic
The difference
Same question. Different results.
The question“Where does cheaper fuel actually bring customers into the store, and when?”
Claude / GPT / Public LLMs
Uploaded file
Answer
Fuel volume rose 8% after the price match. Keep matching to protect traffic.
Just an answer.
Cortex AI
Connected intelligence
Cortex AI- Fuel-to-store conversion
- Hourly street traffic
- Where customers shop
- Competitor fuel prices
- Fleet card mix
- Basket data
- Weather
- Commuter patterns
- Store sales by hour
- Mobility data
- 34% walk in at 9 commuter sites
- Only 11% at 43 highway sites
- Peak: 6 to 9 AM
Answer
Match only where drivers walk in. At 9 commuter sites, 34% come inside between 6 and 9 AM and spend $8.40. Hold a 4¢ premium at the other 43. +$1.1M a year.
A decision.
02 · The finding
The store paid for the discount at 9 sites. At 43, nothing did.
Cortex linked fuel transactions to in-store baskets by time and payment, then added traffic, mobility and competitor data. It separated sites where drivers walk in from sites where they pay at the pump and leave.
Fleet cards and long-haul traffic dominated the highway sites. At commuter sites, the morning coffee run made each extra fuel customer worth far more than six cents a gallon.
What Cortex found
Who walks in, and when
9 commuter sites
34%of fuel customers walk in, 6–9 AM$8.40average basket: coffee and breakfastMatch the rival here
43 highway and fleet sites
11%of fuel customers walk in$5.10average basket: drinks and snacksHold a 4¢ premium
Walk-in rate by hour, commuter sites
Price fuel to feed the store where it counts.
- Matched the rivals at the 9 commuter sites, only during the 6–9 AM window.
- Held a 4¢ premium at the 43 highway and fleet-heavy sites.
- Put the coffee and breakfast bundle on the pump screens at the commuter sites.
03 · The impact
What changed.
A fuel price is also a store decision.
We were giving away six cents a gallon to people who never came inside.
The right fuel price depends on who walks in, when, and what they buy. Price the site, not just the pump.
