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Across the restaurant industry, marketers face a unique set of challenges as customers rapidly change their dining and meal prep habits. Restaurants looking to drive near-term sales need to understand how consumer behavior is shifting and where spend is coming back. By analyzing purchase data for our recent State of Spend report, Cardlytics identified key spend trends to help restaurant marketers track early signs of recovery and take action to drive sales. Here are three must-know highlights:

Appetite for delivery grows faster than ever

Cardlytics’ purchase insights show that demand for delivery is now higher than it was at the start of the shutdown. Consumers increasingly rely on these convenient, app-based services to access a wide variety of menus. In fact, spend with third-party restaurant delivery now is up 119.2% compared to this time last year—a 92.6 percentage point increase from mid-March. Even though customers are adding their favorite dining spots back to their weekly menus and placing orders directly with restaurants, their third-party delivery spend shows no signs of tapering off.

Rebuild relationships with customers who have turned to delivery

As restaurants reopen locations and expand their carryout options, they have the added challenge of reestablishing direct relationships with customers who now rely on third-party delivery. Using purchase insights, Cardlytics’ ad platform targets customers who have switched to delivery and engages them with offers that influence their next dining occasion.

For those interested in reading more on how convenience has impacted the rise of delivery, check out this Nation's Restaurant News article. 

Average check size is on the rise

Now more than ever, every purchase counts. Despite the fact that overall restaurant sales remain down, the average restaurant check is on the rise. This suggests customers are purchasing more meals for the whole family. Across all restaurant categories, order values are now up significantly compared to this time last year—especially for categories with popular to-go options.

Note, full-service restaurants have seen a more modest 4% increase in order value - likely due to limits on in-restaurant dining and reduced alcohol sales.

Customers shift to contactless

As customers remain cautious about person-to-person contact, restaurants may want to consider alternatives to cash payments and paper coupons.

One of our clients, a quick-service restaurant chain, recognized consumer behavior was shifting away from these physical touchpoints amid concerns about COVID-19. They sought a marketing solution that aligned with consumers’ growing adoption of card-based payment methods and provided new incentives to attract customers to their restaurants.

With an audience of over 150M US bank customers and insight into 1 out of every 2 US card swipes, Cardlytics had the scale and insights to engage the restaurant chain’s most likely customers. Through targeted offers in banks’ digital channels, we helped give their customers a reason to order without the use of a paper coupon. Reporting from their recent campaign showed that for every dollar spent, Cardlytics drove an additional $4.00 in incremental return. With our pay-for-performance model, our campaigns minimize risk by driving positive cashflow with no upfront costs.

Turn insights into action

As customers establish new buying habits, marketers need to act quickly to retain their customers and drive sales. Cardlytics is uniquely positioned to help restaurants reach their most likely guests. Precisely targeted offers engage customers in their banks’ digital channels and influence their next dining occasion—ultimately driving incremental sales and growing market share. Contact us today for an analysis and campaign strategy customized for your brand.

These insights were recently featured in our State of Spend report, which follows important shifts in consumer spend and track early signs of recovery. Download our latest State of Spend Report today and be sure to check back for the next issue.

Analysis in this report is based on data derived from the Cardlytics platform between March 5^th and June 17^th. While analysis is representative of purchase behavior, it does not include every customer or every financial institution on the Cardlytics platform.

When Scott and I founded Cardlytics 12 years ago, we knew that bringing the banking industry and the advertising industry together was a unique idea. Building something that drives loyalty for banks, incremental sales for advertisers, and clear financial benefit to their mutual customers has been no small feat. Over the years, we have consistently expanded our relationships with the top banks, both in the U.S. and the UK, which has offered significant opportunities for advertisers as our reach has grown.

Today, I’m proud to formally announce another major accomplishment for our business with the launch of My Wells Fargo Deals in partnership with Wells Fargo bank.

Scaling the Rivals by Partnering with the Largest Banks

Partnering with the fourth largest bank in the U.S. further increases our platform’s scale to rival other major players in the advertising space.

Now with more than 150 million monthly active users, marketers have an even greater ability to reach engaged bank customers in a pristine, brand-safe environment through Cardlytics. We influence where a consumer makes a purchase and offer them tangible value in the form of a cash-back reward. So, brands and banks alike can feel good about driving sales in a way that builds a positive experience for millions of people.

Customer Rewards Resulting in Billions of Sales

We’ve saved consumers more than $500 million in rewards and are proud to extend this value to Wells Fargo’s customers. And with an even broader addressable audience for our advertising partners, we’ll continue to build on the $33 billion in measurable sales we’ve driven for them to date.

Congratulations to the team at Wells Fargo and our teams at Cardlytics for completing the launch of My Wells Fargo Deals in the midst of a global pandemic. It’s certainly an accomplishment to be celebrated.

Atlanta, GA – July 21, 2020 – Cardlytics, Inc., (NASDAQ: CDLX), an advertising platform in banks’ digital channels, today announced that its second quarter ended June 30, 2020 financial results will be released on Tuesday, August 4, 2020, after market close. The company will host a conference call and webcast at 5:00 PM (ET) / 2:00 PM (PT) to discuss the company’s financial results.

A live audio webcast of the event will be available on the Cardlytics Investor Relations website at http://ir.cardlytics.com/.

A live dial-in will be available at (866) 385-4179 (domestic) or (210) 874-7775 (international).  The conference ID number is 4382929. Shortly after the conclusion of the call, a replay of this conference call will be available through 8:00 PM ET on August 11, 2020 at (855) 859-2056 (domestic) or (404) 537-3406 (international).  The replay passcode is 4382929. 

About Cardlytics

Cardlytics (NASDAQ: CDLX) uses purchase intelligence to make marketing more relevant and measurable. We partner with financial institutions to run their banking rewards programs that promote customer loyalty and deepen banking relationships. In turn, we have a secure view into where and when consumers are spending their money. We use these insights to help marketers identify, reach and influence likely buyers at scale, as well as measure the true sales impact of marketing campaigns. Headquartered in Atlanta, Cardlytics has offices in London, New York, San Francisco, and Visakhapatnam. Learn more at www.cardlytics.com.

Davies is one of several notable hires for the company’s sales and product teams

Atlanta, GA – July 9, 2020 – Cardlytics, Inc., (NASDAQ: CDLX), an advertising platform in banks’ digital channels, is enhancing its leadership team with the addition of industry veteran, Peter Davies, as Head of Sales Strategy and Operations. Davies will lead the sales strategy, operations, and readiness teams to help deliver return on marketing investment for some of the top brands in the country.

With nearly two decades of advertising and technology experience, Davies most recently served as Chief Revenue Officer for Darkstore, a technology company focused on same-day fulfillment and delivery for brands, including Nike. Prior to Darkstore, Davies was General Manager for MediaMath’s commercial sector, where he led new business and client service teams. During this time, he was responsible for major partnerships with IBM, Macy’s, Liberty Mutual, and other enterprise brands across programmatic technology and digital strategy. This led to annual double-digit growth for the company. Before MediaMath, Davies was Global Chief Revenue Officer at Rokt, where he successfully led and launched their US and UK operations while overseeing global revenue streams.

We are continuing to invest in the capabilities of our team to create a better return for our advertisers and more leverage for our business. With purchase insights from more than 140 million monthly active users, we’re uniquely positioned to help marketers understand spend behavior and drive measurable sales through our brand-safe advertising channel. Peter’s longstanding experience will help us shape important conversations with advertisers and drive efficiencies in our business."

Ross McNab, President of North America Advertising

Davies is one of several notable additions to Cardlytics’ sales and product teams. In March, Emily Flowers joined Cardlytics as Head of Sales Readiness with oversight of sales training and resourcing. Flowers previously worked as a consultant for three years after spending a decade at Google, most recently as its Global Head of Business Curriculum. In April, Joy Ho joined Cardlytics as Vice President of Product Strategy, leading the team responsible for building products that solve marketers’ problems, including a self-service advertising platform. Ho previously spent time managing product marketing at Pinterest and Facebook.

Davies is based in Cardlytics’ New York office, Ho in San Francisco, and Flowers in Atlanta.

About Cardlytics

Cardlytics (NASDAQ: CDLX) uses purchase intelligence to make marketing more relevant and measurable. We partner with financial institutions to run their banking rewards programs that promote customer loyalty and deepen banking relationships. In turn, we have a secure view into where and when consumers are spending their money. We use these insights to help marketers identify, reach, and influence likely buyers at scale, as well as measure the true sales impact of marketing campaigns. Headquartered in Atlanta, Cardlytics has offices in London, New York, San Francisco and Visakhapatnam. Learn more at www.cardlytics.com.

Tax season is a mix of opportunities and challenges for retailers. On one hand, many consumers will get a refund - creating a bump in their discretionary spending. However, consumers who owe will likely adjust spending to account for a payment to Uncle Sam. Using our purchase intelligence gleaned from partnerships with 1500+ financial institutions, we looked at how consumer tax habits are changing and the opportunities these trends create for brands. 

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Our new Cardlytics State of Spend series helps marketers track weekly changes in consumer spend and take action to drive growth. Purchase insights like these are at the heart of everything we do and set the foundation for precisely targeted campaigns in our 100% brand-safe and fraud-free ad platform. Our offers in banks’ digital channels drive measurable sales for marketers and provide valuable savings for customers.

Our latest issue spotlights restaurant trends as customers change their dining and meal prep habits and turn to delivery. Find out which restaurant categories are further along the path to recovery, how the average restaurant check is changing, and actionable tips for long-term success. With each issue, we’re sharing the Cardlytics Recovery Indicator so that you can keep a pulse on consumer confidence and track which states are showing the strongest signs of return.

Inside this issue:

• Overall spend steadily increasing
• Discretionary spend is up in 46 states
• Average restaurant checks are up year-over-year
• Restaurant spend begins to recover
• Actionable tips for long-term growth

Want more actionable insights?

With insight into 50% of US transactions, Cardlytics puts purchase insights into action every day for advertisers in banks’ digital channels. Whether marketers are experiencing ups or downs in consumer spend, we're here to help our clients navigate the curve and drive measurable sales.

Contact us for an analysis and campaign strategy customized for your brand.

Be sure to check back for the next Cardlytics State of Spend report and view last week’s edition here.

Memorial Day weekend historically marks the unofficial start of summer travel. But this year, it also served as a bellwether of whether consumers would be ready to travel again. Our purchase insights show that, in the near term, travel post-COVID may be considerably changed.  

Consumers still want a change of scenery, but they are turning to more regional and local destinations. Airline and cruise spending were still significantly down compared to this time last year— -77.6% and -85.8% respectively, but we’re seeing signs of return in other travel categories. 

As further evidence of the shift toward local and regional travel, customers are rapidly returning to car rentals. Car rental spend increased +30.8 points to –42.7% after hitting a low of -73.4% year over year in early April. This suggests that customers are once again taking summer road trips to driver-friendly destinations. 

At first glance, hotels & lodging recovered the most by Memorial Day weekend, but within the aggregate figures is an important shift. Spend increased +38.1 pts from a low the week of 4/2 (this category is now pacing at –47.8% from a low of -85.8% YOY). However, most of these gains were driven by alternative lodging and homestay brands – not traditional hotels.  

Alternative lodging leads the path forward

Alternative lodging spend is now showing a positive increase of +16% year-over-year, surpassing even last year’s Memorial Weekend spend. In comparison, traditional hotel brands remained down -61.6% year over year. Because alternative lodging is typically paid for in advance, it can serve as an early indicator of upcoming travel spend. However, the dramatic recovery of this category has significantly outpaced the slower turnaround of other industry spend for many weeks and seems to indicate an accelerated adoption of vacation rental disruptors.

Actionable tip: minimize the impact of disruptors

COVID-19 has changed consumer behavior. Across the board, disruptors are rapidly gaining a foothold over their traditional counterparts. We’ve seen the shift in spend toward e-Commerce retailers, online grocery, third-party restaurant delivery, and now, alternative lodging.  

Prior to COVID-19, hotel spend was growing so quickly that it allowed for the expansive growth of alternative lodging without significantly impacting the growth prospects for the major hotel brands.  But with alternative lodging and homestay brands devouring summer leisure travel demand again while traditional hotel spend remains in steep decline, this represents a more significant threat. Hotels and other impacted categories need to act quickly to bring their customers back before they’re lost for good. 

Drive growth with our trusted, fraud-free ad platform

Using purchase insights, Cardlytics can identify customers who have started to resume spending in relevant categories and engage them with highly targeted offers in our 100% brand-safe and fraud-free ad platform. These offers reach real customers in their online and mobile banking channels while they’re thinking about how to spend their money. Our campaigns minimize the risk associated with returning to marketing with a pay-for-performance model. We drive proven results and positive cashflow with no upfront costs.

Want more actionable insights?

With insight into 50% of US transactions, Cardlytics puts purchase insights into action every day for advertisers in banks’ digital channels. Whether marketers are experiencing ups or downs in consumer spend, we're here to help our clients navigate the curve and drive measurable sales. Contact us for an analysis and campaign strategy customized for your brand.

These insights were recently featured in our State of Spend report, which follows important shifts in consumer spend and track early signs of recovery. Download our latest State of Spend Report today and be sure to check back for the next issue.

Analysis in this report is based on data derived from the Cardlytics platform between March 5th and June 3rd. While analysis is representative of purchase behavior, it does not include every customer or every financial institution on the Cardlytics platform.

Across all industries, US consumer spend continues to trend up as more states reopen their economies. When looking at weekly spend, Cardlytics purchase insights show that overall spend is pacing at -11.4% year over year. This is a significant improvement compared to a low point of –34.3% YOY in late March.

But does this mean that consumers are easing back into their pre-COVID-19 shopping patterns? As impacted marketers seek to time their return, we need to go a level deeper to understand when spend is returning to normal. To help answer this question, I’m pleased to announce the Cardlytics Recovery Indicator.  

What is the Cardlytics Recovery Indicator?

The Cardlytics Recovery Indicator was designed to help brands keep a pulse on consumer confidence and choose the right time to ramp up their marketing. In order to forecast when consumers may be ready to return to stores, we’ve looked at trends for select discretionary categories—comparing weekly spend at low-ticket, high-frequency businesses such as salons, apparel retailers, casual dining and QSR restaurants, among others.

Purchase insights like these are the foundation for precisely targeted campaigns in our ad platform and can be used to drive sales from customers who are starting to purchase again outside of their homes. We’ll be sharing the Cardlytics Recovery Indicator regularly via our State of Spend report series.

Overall, recovery is trending in the right direction

Marketers who have been waiting for signs of recovery shouldn’t wait much longer. While customers remain cautious about spending on non-essentials and returning to their normal buying patterns, they are gradually gaining confidence each week. After dropping to a low of -75% YOY at the end of March, spend at brands within the Recovery Indicator has continued to climb back up — reaching -40.85% YOY the week of 5/28- 6/3. This momentum is represented by a gain of +34 points.

When looking at total spend with Recovery Indicator brands, we see consumers continuing to spend more each week, albeit at fluctuating rates. The last week of May, they spent 6.3% more than the week before, a slightly lower rate of increase than the 12% growth we saw previously.

Making the Cardlytics Recovery Indicator actionable

As marketers plan their return, the effectiveness and efficiency of their campaigns will depend on their ability to prioritize the individuals who are ready to spend. At Cardlytics, we’re committed to helping marketers predict where and when spend at their stores is likely to return. By overlaying our Recovery Indicator on their unique customer sets, we help gauge customer confidence and choose the right time to ramp up marketing. We also help our clients acquire new customers by prioritizing people who have resumed normal spending and by focusing on regions of the country that are showing strong signs of recovery.

One of our clients—a national restaurant chain—wanted to re-engage customers as they became comfortable making purchases outside the home. Using our purchase insights, Cardlytics was able to identify customers actively purchasing from quick service restaurants. Through targeted offers in customers’ online and mobile banking channels, we helped our client reach the most likely customers and drive sales for their pickup and drive-through locations.

Want more actionable insights?

With insight into 50% of US transactions, Cardlytics puts purchase insights into action every day for advertisers in banks’ digital channels. Whether marketers are experiencing ups or downs in consumer spend, we're here to help our clients navigate the curve and drive measurable sales. Contact us for an analysis and campaign strategy customized for your brand.

These insights were recently featured in our State of Spend report, which follows important shifts in consumer spend and track early signs of recovery. Download our latest State of Spend Report today and be sure to check back for the next issue.

Analysis in this report is based on data derived from the Cardlytics platform between March 5th and June 3rd. While analysis is representative of purchase behavior, it does not include every customer or every financial institution on the Cardlytics platform.

We recently launched the Cardlytics State of Spend series to help marketers navigate changes in consumer spend. Purchase insights like these are the foundation for precisely targeted campaigns in our ad platform. Our offers in banks’ digital channels drive business growth for marketers and provide valuable savings for customers. 

In addition to highlighting weekly changes in spend, our new State of Spend issue spotlights Memorial Day travel trends. Find out which travel categories are seeing the biggest changes as customers find new ways to get out of the house this summer. With each issue, we’re sharing the Cardlytics Recovery Indicator so that you can keep a pulse on consumer confidence and track which states are showing the strongest signs of return.

Inside this issue: 

• Overall spend continues to increase with small weekly gains 
• Signs of Return: the Cardlytics Recovery Indicator 
• Discretionary spend is up in 48 states 
• Customers are now shopping fewer retail brands 
• Memorial Day kicks off summer travel  
• Actionable tips for long-term growth 

Want more actionable insights? 

With insight into 50% of US transactions, Cardlytics puts purchase insights into action every day for advertisers in banks’ digital channels. Whether marketers are experiencing ups or downs in consumer spend, we're here to help our clients navigate the curve and drive measurable sales.  

Contact us for an analysis and campaign strategy customized for your brand.  

Be sure to check back for the next Cardlytics State of Spend report and view last week’s edition here.