CSX provides customizable tools for financial and operational analysis and benchmarking to the industry. Subscribers can view their performance in metrics such as sales and margins for fuel and inside categories. Merchandise and foodservice subcategories sales and margin reporting has recently been added. Subscribers can also benchmark expense line items, financial ratios and compare operational measures such as employee productivity, turnover and transaction counts. The data can be viewed through several different filters including:
- Time—CSX contains historical data from 2001 to the present
- Firm level—down to store level where applicable
- Geography—all NACS regions, customizable regions and state level (where available)
- Chain size—NACS chain size classifications A-E
- Rankings—Quartile rankings by several metrics
- Sales & Margin Data—broken down into merchandise and foodservice subcategory
The site allows users view data online or expert to excel. Users can create custom dashboards for reports that are used most often and custom graphs for any collected data line item.
Retail subscriber data is collected monthly through a confidential process that is vetted for accuracy by means both electronic and human rationalization. The data is aggregated and approved for viewing by users.
CSX features over 100 top performing firms supplying monthly data as well as a sample of over 20,000 chain stores’ data available for viewing as the NACS State of the Industry averages. Subscribers are provided an unlimited number of user licenses and receive training for using the website for both data submission and generating reports. CSX retail subscribers’ data is automatically included in the annual state of the industry survey submission and they receive full benefits of those that participate.
Subscribing is easy, CSX offers a subscription package for anyone interested in accessing the data as well as providing services such as data mapping and training in effectively running and interpreting the reports.
Retailer: The CSX staff facilitate the process of collecting retail reporting data and mapping each firm’s data to the CSX reports. The process is straightforward and typically completed in a short time.
Supplier: Supplier subscriptions include additional functionality as well as unlimited access to CSX staff for assistance in creating comprehensive presentations or assistance in interpreting the retail data.
Ad Hoc: Organizations such as financial institutions, state associations, refiners and consulting firms can request custom reports to be run by CSX staff to support a project they are working on. CSX provides consulting on the best way to view the data view the data an interpret results.
To learn more about CSX services and pricing, or set up a demo, fill out the form below and someone will respond to you within 2 business days.
"We all sit awake at night wondering how we compare to others in the industry. National figures may not always reflect our region... but CSX brings our region's data to us... and as the population grows, they will bring us our state's data.
"CSX goes beyond 'benchmarking'. We are able to look at analytical data that we were computing and free up some of those resources to tackle other issues. CSX is more than what we expected, and we continue to explore and utilize other features on a regular basis."
- Andrew Bowman, VP, Stop-N-Go of Madison, Inc.
"We thought the initial time investment to get setup was going to take longer than quoted. After all was said and done, it took very little time monthly financials in. We gave CSX the data, and they did all the work. Now that they have mapped our data, the submission process just takes my assistant 10-15 minutes a month. As soon as she inputs it, I can immediately run any graph, or report for that given time period."
Chris Rapanick is the director of business development at NACS. Chris manages the CSX Benchmarking Database and the NACS State of the Industry Enterprise. He is the customer liaison for CSX, recruiting new subscribers and providing training to users of the database. Chris provides consulting services to retailers, suppliers and other industry stakeholders by supplying and assisting in the analysis of financial and operational data gleaned from CSX and supporting them in creating strategies to improve their operations and grow their businesses.
Chris has spent his entire career working in retail channels on both sides of the desk. The early part of his career was spent as a manager in the grocery channel. Before joining CSX in 2009, he was sales manager for a large beverage company in both large and small store formats. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA.
Chris can be contacted by email crapanick@convenience.org or by phone at (703) 518-4253.