NACS | CSX

The Engine Behind the NACS State of the Industry Report^®

NACS CSX is a dynamic, self-reported subscription database serving the convenience retail industry and its stakeholders. CSX provides financial and operational benchmarking services to both retailers and suppliers. Retailer subscribers confidentially provide operational data that is entered into the CSX database, allowing them and other subscribers to compare their own performance with national, regional or state level averages.

In addition to using CSX data to generate content for the annual NACS State of the Industry Summit and State of the Industry Report^®, the NACS research team has access to over 20 years of industry data and has worked with some of the largest consulting firms, major oil companies, financial institutions, and equity partners in the U.S. to create documents and strategic plans that help solve business problems or educate investors interested in the convenience industry.

Whether you're a convenience retailer or a supplier, our goal is to help industry stakeholders design effective strategies to grow market share by using targeted industry benchmark data.

Features

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.

Methodology

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.

Current CSX Member: Log In

To learn more about CSX services and pricing, or set up a demo,

Chris Rapanick

Managing Director, NACS Research

NACS

(703) 518-4253

Read Bio +

Chris Rapanick is the managing director of research at NACS. Chris’ team produces, the NACS State of the Industry Report, The State of the Industry Summit, SOI Compensation Report, Convenience Voices Shopper Insights Program, the CSX Benchmarking Database and thought leadership whitepapers published by NACS.

Chris came to NACS from Coca-Cola Enterprises with a love of data and the convenience channel. In his 14-year career with NACS, he has dedicated himself to helping retailers make better decisions by using data analysis and suppliers “speak the retailers’ language” by understanding the details of their business model.

Chris started his career in retail managing grocery stores for a prominent retailer in the southeast. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA.

The education and training I experience as a NACS member has truly matured my ability to effectively advocate on major industry issues and elevate my business.

Chris Bambury, Vice President, Bambury Inc.

I quickly found that my dealers aren’t the only ones benefiting from the NACS membership. I’ve been able to learn best practices in the fuel business on a weekly, often daily basis.

Jeff Miller, Norfolk, VA, 50 participating dealers, NACS Jobber/Dealer member since 2010

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.

NACS serves the global convenience and fuel retailing industry by providing industry knowledge, connections and issues leadership to ensure the competitive viability of its members’ businesses.

1600 Duke Street 7th Floor

Alexandria, VA 22314

703-684-3600

Quick Links

Industry Partners

Stay Current