STRATEGY
OPTIONS

With PriceCast you are in total control. You can easily set parameter rules that will restrict things like operating times and margin so that you can ‘test the water’ and monitor results while you are around.

Our team will help you configure PriceCast and we are always on hand to help you maximise the benefits. Set out below are a few strategic options that any forecourt operator might wish to consider. The different options can easily be configured to work at specified times of the day depending on your requirements and site characteristics:

Basic Rule Based Pricing

Rule Based pricing is the traditional choice when your business strategy simply is to base the pricing decision on a set of business rules and restrictions.

The rules can be as simple or as complex as you decide and are basically just a list of inputs e.g. competitor prices, volume targets, time, margin limits, etc.

Basic Rule Based pricing can be a simple and effective pricing strategy if your desired brand image is: “We are always the cheapest” or for example, if you prefer to be a little more creative, “We are always the cheapest on Saturdays.”

Restricted Artificial Intelligence (AI) Pricing

Restricted AI pricing makes use of the full artificial intelligence functions delivered through PriceCast but does so within defined parameters (competitor price differential, margin, time of day, frequency etc.) set by you the forecourt owner.

An important distinction between basic ‘rule based pricing’ and PriceCast ‘AI pricing’ lies in the latter’s use of artificial intelligence and its continual application to customer profiling.
Consequentially, the forecourt owner can ‘test the water with AI’ by mixing and matching elements from each pricing strategy.

For example, rather than simply setting your price at say two pence above the competition, you could set it at plus or minus three pence and then let the AI Optimization Module find the optimal price and volume of customers within this spread margin.

If however, your strategy is never to be more expensive than competition, your tolerance could be one-sided, for example, plus 0 and minus 3 pence. In this instance, the AI module will find the optimal price, and set it just below your competition, but still with room for optimization – according to volume and margin objectives.

Restricted AI is a modern and much more dynamic and efficient alternative to conventional pricing systems like basic rule based pricing.

Advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) Pricing

Advanced AI pricing should be your strategy when your objective is to achieve the optimal balance between volume and margin.

Advanced AI pricing is based on learning algorithms to construct dynamic profiles of customers and their purchasing patterns. It analyses both your customers, competitors and their strategies on both the level of individual sites or across your entire forecourt estate.

PriceCast’s AI module uses sophisticated methods to manage risk and deal with incomplete data to mimic a flexible, almost human-like behaviour. These methods allow PriceCast to rapidly, intelligently, and continuously react to changing customer behaviour, changing markets, and unexpected events.