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The back-to-school (B2S) season is widely known as one of the most critical periods for retailers looking to increase their annual bottom line. Accounting for nearly 20% of spend that occurs outside the winter holidays, Cardlytics’ purchase insights show that overall spend for retailers grew faster during the B2S period than the rest of the year. However, retailers aren’t the only ones who can take advantage of the B2S shopping season. Back-to-school season is a key time for restaurants to capture spend, as well.According to The Cardlytics 2018 Back-to-School Spend Report, B2S spend grew nearly 3% from 2016 to 2017. And, while you may be thinking that online accounted for all that growth, it’s important to note that brick & mortars captured more than 73% of that spend in 2017. What does that mean for restaurant marketers? LOTS OF FOOT TRAFFIC!Here’s how restaurants can capitalize on the increased foot traffic that occurs during the B2S season.Offer deals for back-to-school shopping receiptsRestaurants should consider giving diners “extra credit” for completing their B2S shopping. Offer diners a free appetizer or dessert for showing their back-to-school shopping receipt. Restaurants can also use this tactic to help the community by offering the same reward for bringing in a small school supply donation, e.g., an extra set of pencils or a backpack.Give diners offers they can use on the goBack-to-school shoppers are busy trying to ensure they get all the supplies they need. Food is likely the last thing they’re thinking of until their tummies remind them. Cardlytics’ cash-back rewards are delivered directly through a banks’ online and mobile channels, which means consumers can access them while finishing up their back-to-school shopping.Make it easy for them to dineAfter a long day of shopping, back-to-school shoppers will be ready to eat, but they may not want to sit in a restaurant. Offer specials on family takeaway meals that diners can order and pick up easily.For more B2S purchase insights, download The Cardlytics 2018 Back-to-School Spend Report.

Technology is driving change in consumer behaviour wherever you look. Whether it’s through smart devices, wearables or virtual and augmented reality, these new technologies are reshaping behaviours and spending habits.

Cardlytics’ latest UK spend index, which tracks the card spend of 3 million bank customers, shows how technology, including online delivery services, are impacting the restaurant industry.

Consumers are eating out less, instead dining-in via online delivery. Companies, such as Just Eat and Deliveroo, are providing delivery access to an ever-increasing number of restaurants through convenient apps, and high street restaurants are feeling the pinch.

Spend on delivery services was up by 17% year-on-year in Q1. This followed a 14% rise in Q1 2017. However, spending on eating out grew by only 3% year-on-year in Q1 2018, compared to 9% growth in Q1 2017.

Given the major growth witnessed in the years before, with spend increasing by 10% year-on-year in Q1 2017 and 17% in Q1 2016, it paints a picture of an industry that is beginning to stall.

Casual dining has been among the worst hit. It accounted for almost half of people’s restaurant spend only two years ago; it now sits at just over 40%. Spend on casual dining in Q1 fell by 1% year-on-year. The struggles of casual dining are evidenced by the well-publicised troubles of many household name restaurants over the last year.

However, amid the doom and gloom, there are reasons to be hopeful for physical dining:

• Takeaway opportunities: As popularity of delivery services continues to surge, the likes of Deliveroo are providing access to restaurants who haven’t previously offered their own takeaway services.
• Cold nights keep diners indoors: A particularly cold winter has made the landscape even more challenging for casual dining, while presenting a boost for delivery services. With the weather getting warmer, customers will be more inclined to visit physical restaurants.
• Get creative: With diners more disposed to dining out, restaurants would be wise to explore new partnerships and diversify their rewards and offers to entice back customers over the summer months.

What it all boils down to though is profitability. With margins being increasingly squeezed across the industry in 2018, restaurant owners are having to take a long hard look at their physical high street presence and examine whether their strategy is still sufficiently different to foster loyalty amongst increasingly discerning customers.

Ultimately, those that fail to make the most of the tools available to them – covering everything from smartphone apps to rewards systems – will continue to struggle.

The phrase “picking up a few things for dinner” used to mean the same thing to nearly everyone: a quick run to the local grocery store. However, now that delivery, discount, and meal kit brands are disrupting the traditional grocery industry, there are many ways shoppers can put food on the table.The consumer is in control. And, they are leveraging a variety of channels to put food on the table. Looking at +$1.3 trillion in actual spend across credit, debit, ACH, and bill pay, Cardlytics published a grocery state of the industry. The report, titled How is Grocery Spend Changing Across Meal Kits, Specialty, Delivery, Traditional, & Discount?, highlights how the changes in grocery are shifting food dollars and evolving the marketplace.A few key findings:

• Convenience continues to be important In 2017, we saw 4.6% of customers using convenience channels like meal kits or delivery. And, online grocery spend in 2017 grew nearly 100%.
• Discount grocery means savvy shopping vs. limited resources Discount grocery experienced a consistent 8-10% annual growth in 2017, demonstrating that consumers want both convenience and affordability.
• Surprising acquisition periods
• While shopping trials spike during Thanksgiving and Christmas, most customers don’t return the following year. An interesting finding, given that most grocers consider this a key time to acquire new customers.
• Traditional grocery customers acquired during the week of July 4^th are more likely to be retained. This means grocers are not relegated to the winter holidays to attract new shoppers. They should keep a steady drumbeat of marketing to attract new customers year-round.

So, how do brands survive in this changing era? Purchase-based targeting and sales-driven measurement. That means targeting based on actual purchase behavior, instead of demographics, and evaluating success based on actual sales, instead of clicks and attributed sales.While grocers can track what their customers do when they’re in the store; they’re left with a blind spot once the customer leaves. This often leads to misinformed marketing. For example, while a customer may seem brand loyal, they may actually be heavy category shoppers. It’s important to have a “full-wallet” view of how customers are shopping with you and your competitors. Additionally, it’s critical to evaluate success based on metrics beyond clicks and brand awareness. Grocers need to understand how their campaigns drove actual in-store sales.As grocers face increasing competition, Cardlytics has helped them bring shoppers back in a 16-35% lift in transactions and a $6.51 - $9.23 increase in incremental revenue for every $1 invested.Interested in how Cardlytics can help you increase spend this year? Contact us. Click here to download the full grocery state of the industry report.

It’s no secret that it has been a trying year for the UK high street. Over the last 12 months, several household retailers have felt the effect of reduced footfall, causing them to cut down on their store portfolios.

However, new purchase data suggest that capitalising on their customers’ online behaviour may just prove to be the saving grace retailers are looking for.

Cardlytics’ most recent Spend Index shows that online spending among traditional high street retailers has outpaced their overall growth by three times.

High street bookshops and pet shops are good examples of those finding effective ways to capture online traffic. In January 2018 alone, established high street book stores experienced a year-on-year online growth of 66% against a 3% decline for in-store sales. And, pet shops experienced an increase of 27%, helping to drive increased in-store spending. Overall, spending in bookshops increased by almost a quarter, while pet shops rocketed by a third.

Sales at pure-play online fashion retailers grew by 12% year-on-year, a rate growth four times higher than traditional high street fashion retailers’ online brands. This is a warning sign for an industry that has historically relied heavily on brick-and-mortar spend.

So, what can retailers take away from the latest figures?

As the data shows, there’s an opportunity in the slowdown, specifically in using online channels effectively.

For retailers looking to lift their sales, here are some digital strategies for capturing online traffic to boost bricks and mortar:

• Make your online channels work harder by promoting seasonal online shipping deals or offering return rewards;
• Use online to bring customers into stores by offering free store collection alongside discounts on most popular items;
• Target likely buyers based on actual spend and location across web, mobile and digital, so you know your marketing efforts are getting in front of most relevant audience.
• Reach buyers when and where they’re already thinking about money, with rewards offers within their bank channels that are easy to gather and redeem.

To keep up with the changing UK retail landscape, the rapid rise of online-only players, and evolving consumer behaviour, retailers must work harder to engender loyalty. Cardlytics Direct allows brands to reach likely buyers with ads they want to see. Read more about Cardlytics Direct here.

If this year’s Ad Exchanger Industry Preview is any indication, 2018 will be a watershed year for digital advertising. Throughout the conference, speakers highlighted the need to move away from business as usual and start applying innovations that were only theories in previous years.Here are the top three takeaways from the event:Personalized marketing performs better. Call it “personal marketing,” “experience marketing,” or “intelligent marketing,” in 2018 marketers will be re-focusing their attention on directly engaging individual customers through meaningful experiences. A recent Salesforce study supports this shift - it showed that 61% of consumers were more likely to buy from companies delivering custom content. Case in point: Johnson & Johnson’s CMO said they see 2-3X return for personal marketing vs. a mass spray and pray approach. Our own native channel, which delivers ads targeted to likely buyers based on past purchase behavior, averages a 7% click through rate vs. the industry standard 0.8%. (Click here to learn more about Cardlytics’ native bank channel advertising). Trust remains an issue. Fraud, questionable data sources and unexplained fees continue to plague the industry. According to a CMO Council study, 72% of marketers surveyed said they had concerns about safety and controls with their digital ad placements. Also troubling, panelists pointed out that mobile fraud could be a big problem in 2018 since it is almost impossible to detect. Thankfully, our bank partnerships give Cardlytics a trusted source of data with clear permissions. Our own ad channel is fraud-free (even in mobile!).The industry will set new standards to measure performance. Both marketers and publishers have a stake in showing how ad campaigns impact real-world sales. Publishers discussed how they want more sustainable ad standards: fewer ads that they hope will be relevant to consumers and boost performance. But, as you can imagine, fewer ads and better performance will likely come with a price premium which they’ll have to justify. At the same time, panelists discussed how outdated proxies and inconsistent analytics are particularly problematic for marketers under pressure to demonstrate how spend improves their bottom line. If we stick with outdated metrics like CTR and online conversions, we’re missing most of digital’s impact (and opportunity). Remember, 92% of sales still take place at brick and mortar locations. Cardlytics Measurement connects the dots between digital media and actual sales – both online and in-store. Marketers and publishers can use our unbiased reports to prove the real value of their ad campaigns.Contact us to learn more if you’re interested in working with Cardlytics to reach likely buyers within our own native bank channel, or to measure the success of your digital campaigns.

With flowers blooming, birds chirping, and the northeast finally digging their way out of the snow, spring is widely considered a time for new life. And, that feeling often translates into new shopping behaviors. From trying different grocery stores, to buying new clothes and changing up house décor, spring is a great time for marketers to reach new shoppers as they change their habits.

Capturing spring shoppers gives marketers an opportunity to acquire new consumers before the back-to-school season, the second largest shopping event for brands, begins. By analyzing $1.5T in actual consumer purchases, we saw back-to-school spend grow 2.93% from 2016. Major shopping events, like Prime Day, have pulled back-to-school spend forward by a good month. As a result, it’s increasingly critical for marketers to start building brand loyalty early in the year so they can capture the most spend during the back-to-school season.

Some essential tips for marketers who want to capture spring shoppers:

• Target likely buyers based on actual spend, so you know your marketing efforts are getting in front of consumers most likely to spend with you
• Make it easy for consumers to shop by offering online shipping deals for the spring, or free ship-to-store on spring clothes or new cleaning products
• Offer return rewards, like discounts for return visits during late summer, AKA back-to-school season

Strengthening loyalty during the spring months is critical to getting foot traffic for upcoming shopping events – namely, back-to-school and holiday. Be sure to check out our new back-to-school report, publishing in June, for more purchase insights and tips on capturing back-to-school shoppers.

Tracking the level of consumer spending has become an important health check on the UK economy. All eyes are on how the surge in inflation and other economic factors are impacting the wallets and, in turn, growth.

Lately, five-year high inflation combined with lagging wage growth has consumers feeling the pinch.

Our latest UK Spend Index, which tracked the spend of nearly four million people across Q3, echoes that sentiment.

While spending grew 3% annually, this was set against the 6% year-on-year increase seen in the previous quarter. Growth is clearly slowing.

There are signs of positivity elsewhere, though.

While spending growth may be slowing, our data suggests that consumers are merely becoming more selective.

Indeed, spending in ‘experience’ sectors such as dining and travel remained intact.

In particular, spend on quick-service restaurants grew 5% since the previous quarter, and saw a 21% year-on-year increase.

Moreover, Britain has truly become a nation of food lovers: spending on eating out has taken a firmer foothold in people’s wallets than ever before, with the share of spend for restaurants overall increasing the most since we started tracking consumer spend.

We are also seeing signs of strength when it comes to airlines (+9%), hotels (+6%) and travel (+6%).

It is clear that consumers are willing to spend in categories that can create shareable, memorable experiences. As we move into the holiday season this data suggests that travel gifts may be prevalent this year.

Ahead of the holiday shopping season, this is an important trend for brands to consider as they develop their marketing strategies.

For many brands, Black Friday is seen as a blessing and a curse.

On the one hand, it’s another big moment in the retail calendar for shoppers. On the other, it’s another time when jaw-dropping discounts are king and competition is fierce.

Either way, it’s become an increasingly established part of the UK retail calendar since it first came to prominence in 2010. Arriving just as online retail was about to explode in the UK, its timing was perfect.

However, sentiment may be changing.

While Black Friday week was last year the busiest shopping week of the festive season, there were clear signs of fatigue.

Indeed, it was the only festive week in 2016 during which key categories experienced a spending dip. In contrast, we saw more and more spend towards last-minute and post-Christmas purchases.

Yet, despite that blip, the week in which Black Friday fell last year was still the busiest shopping week of the festive season.

The retail, grocery and fashion sectors all saw increases during Black Friday on the prior weeks. But the biggest winners were the airline, restaurants and travel sectors, giving a clear indication that people might be moving away from traditional product gifts to experience-based surprises (see Table 1).

While the approach to Black Friday varies among brands, our analysis shows that the key is to view the festive shopping season as a whole.

Indeed we identified four clear shopper periods for the wider holiday season: Early Birds, Black Friday Warriors, Last-Minute Shoppers and Post-Christmas Shoppers (see Table 2).

There are nuances to each group. We saw a huge increase in spend among Last-Minute Shoppers last year. Perhaps we’re becoming increasingly poorly organised or, more likely, ore trusting of online delivery. Either way, this is clearly a growing consumer group. There are quirks that need to be understood about the others, too.

The brands which truly win Black Friday will be the ones which build plans across the whole festive season, identifying the consumer groups in which they resonate and understanding how to reach them.

When viewed as part of a wider festive plan, the prospect of Black Friday might start to become a little less gloomy.

At Cardlytics, it’s not uncommon for us to win awards for the work we do. Just over the past few years, we’ve:

• Ranked on the Inc. 5000 three times, a list of the nation’s fastest-growing companies.

• Ranked on the Deloitte Tech Fast 500™ three times, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America.

• Ranked #5 on Entrepreneur’s, Entrepreneur 360, a ranking of the 360 best entrepreneurial companies in America.

• Named by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a Best Places to Work

This year, on the Inc. 5000, we were ranked no. 1 among Georgia-based advertising and marketing companies with revenue greater than $100 million. We also ranked the fourth fastest growing company among all advertising and marketing companies in the United States with revenue greater than $100 million. On the Deloitte Tech Fast 500, we ranked 245 in North America and no. 9 in Georgia.Every award, every win, reminds me of why Lynne and I started this company: to help financial institutions and marketers solve real business problems. Every time Cardlytics’ success is recognized, I am humbled and inspired by the smart, forward-thinking people that have helped shape this company into what it is today.Today, not only do we partner with top financial institutions for their loyalty programs, and see $1.5 trillion in spend, but we also work with:

• 20 of the top 25 Nation’s Restaurant News Top U.S. Restaurant Chains.

• 23 of the top 50 National Retail Federation’s Top U.S. Retailers.

• 3 of the top 5 cable & satellite T.V. providers, by U.S. subscriber counts.

• 3 of the top 4 wireless carriers, by U.S. subscriber counts.

In short, everyone’s hard work drives our business – and other businesses – forward. We should be proud of we continue to achieve together.Congratulations Cardlytians!