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We’ve seen a dramatic shift in how people spend. One of the larger takeaways is that online spending among consumers has increased and remains high even as lockdown restrictions have been lifted. Compared to pre-Covid behaviors, online retail and restaurant delivery are both up 131% and 244% year over year respectively, showing customers have moved online and are staying there. However, the question on most marketers’ minds is: how do we maintain this momentum?  To help answer this question, Michael Novosel, Grocery Industry Lead, shares some tips on how grocers can capitalize on the opportunity in front of them and accelerate omnichannel grocery adoption to maximize customer lifetime value. 

Convert those ‘bricks’ to ‘clicks’

We know that 75.1% of customers are in-store only – converting these shoppers through an omnichannel grocery plan to an online channel means opening net new lanes of revenue. Online shoppers spend more and do so more often than shoppers that primarily shop in store. 

Through Cardlytics’ view into observed consumer spend, we have seen online basket ranges in excess of $15, greater than the typical in-store basket size –likely because consumers are now using online retailers to ‘stock up’ on every day or repeat items.  

Implementing a digital shopping experience is your opportunity to connect with your best customers, in a new format they’ve yet to experience. You can meet more of your customers where they are, increasing basket size, trip frequency, and revenue. For many of our grocers, it starts first with investing in owned and paid personalization strategies to ensure that when your habitual in-store consumer considers online trial, they’re presented with the products and pairings that they most frequently consider when spending in-store. 

Then, through a partnership with Cardlytics, we work to identify: 

1. Habitual in-store shoppers 
2. Shoppers that have not yet spent with you online but show consistent online spend at your peer set 

Target declining shoppers

Did you experience a lapse in customers once restaurants started reopening? Or maybe you gained new customers that tried your brand once but did not return. You are not alone. Grocery dominance was eclipsed by restaurant re-openings earlier this year and dollar share is being redistributed back to pre-pandemic times. Consumers haven’t stopped spending in this category, they’ve just shifted their money elsewhere, either to a new grocer or to restaurants. We help client brands grow market share by giving them a “whole wallet view” into how their ideal customers are spending with competitors and in untapped categories that may have stolen your customers away— like ready to eat meals, meal kits or even non-food items. Cardlytics identifies where these lapsed customers and trialists went, whether they’re worth re-engaging, and delivers a targeted marketing campaign to bring them back to your brand. 

Online adoption is in the early innings. But there’s plenty of opportunity for growth

Total penetration of online shoppers remains below 10%. Even if you are a brand that saw strong and sustained adoption of your investment in e-commerce, don’t get comfortable, because the trend has barely started and there is plenty of room to grow. The right omnichannel marketing strategy will unlock huge opportunity to continue this momentum by analyzing where residual opportunity remains that may have been inadvertently overlooked during the surge of early Covid.  

Investing in the customer experience to boost revenue

According to this recent survey, half of [grocery] shoppers abandoned the e-commerce channel after one online purchase but those who stayed engaged became more loyal. And according to our insights, customers that engage in omnichannel behavior typically spend between 2 and 2.5 times more than regular customers.  In turn, retailers able to retain online and omnichannel shoppers — and nudge in-store shoppers to make online purchases — will gain long-term loyalty. 

With Cardlytics, you can drive tangible revenue thanks to our ability to ‘align the stars,’ by connecting the right people to the right rewards. Our insights-led approach to identifying, targeting and converting your ideal buyers can jumpstart new marketing-attributable incremental sales and position your omnichannel grocery strategy as an important driver of your broader customer and growth initiatives. 

As a data guy, I love purchase data. Because for me the data is a signal. A positive confirmation that something we want to happen, happened. In our world it drives conversions, and we are drowning with conversions, in a good way. I participated in a fireside chat at this year’s Loyalty Summit to talk more about purchase data as it relates to loyalty, customer relationship management (CRM), and Cardlytics. Here are some of the highlights from that chat.

Mutual Loyalty in a Closed Loop Program

Thirteen years ago, we created an industry that would benefit banks, brands, and their shared consumer. As an advertising platform within banks’ digital channels, we are able to capture anonymized customer spend data that helps us target the consumers brands want to reach. Ultimately, this drives loyalty for the bank and the brand. At Cardlytics, we call this “mutual loyalty.”  

Here’s a simplified example of how this works… Most retailers know who comes into their store, but they don’t know what happens after they leave. They don’t know if they are getting their full share of a consumer’s category spend or only a fraction.  By partnering with financial institutions, Cardlytics is able to understand the full view of the consumer, allowing a relevant offer to be delivered to a consumer that will ultimately grow the brand’s share of category. Brands get efficient use of marketing dollars while financial institutions get to deliver meaningful value that funded by the advertiser, to their customers.

It starts with a (data) signal

We also work with the banks to help create an experience of reward and delight. We know that customers log into their mobile app or online bank between 10 to 12 times a month to look at their balance, transaction history, etc. We inherently become another channel or extension of the CRM system for advertising partners, creating a full closed loop loyalty program. It’s a win, win, win - the advertiser reaches its intended audience to create a sale, the bank gets to delight its customer with cash back rewards from some of the top brands in the country, and the customer receives cash back into their account.

It’s a fast-moving space but we are excited for the success our banks, advertisers and end consumers are seeing through our program.

You can listen to my recent session at The Loyalty Summit- CRM.

In 2021, digital advertising in the United States grew to $139.8 billion with a lot of marketing dollars relying on a strategy upon which both Google and Apple have put a firm expiration date.

The bulk of digital ad spend still relies on third-party cookies for targeting. However, Google has announced the removal of third-party cookies by the end of 2022 when using the Chrome browser. Meanwhile Apple’s iOS is already allowing users to block cookie-based tracking. Therefore, it's imperative for brands and digital marketers to have a plan for cookie-free digital advertising.  

What Are Third-Party Cookies? 

Two kinds of cookies are created by a web browser when someone visits a website: a first-party cookie and a third-party cookie.  

A first-party cookie is hosted and used by the visited website, but third-party cookies are hosted by third-party servers such as an ad server. These digital advertisers aggregate data from third-party cookies to create a profile for personalized ads. Third-party cookies give brands the ability to target potential customers, generate item-level data, and increase sales. 

However, because third-party cookies lack consumer consent, regulators in the US and elsewhere have enacted regulations to phase them out. In the EU, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires consent to place a cookie on a user’s device and California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) which is a state-wide data privacy law that regulates how businesses all over the world are allowed to handle the personal information (PI) of California residents. 

Consumer attitudes towards data privacy 

A 2020 Consumer Reports study found that 96% of Americans agree that more should be done to ensure that companies protect the privacy of consumers and 42% of consumers believe that companies should be the most responsible for user privacy. A better overall consumer experience is why Cardlytics uses only first-party purchase intelligence data from its bank partners to target and serve content within its advertising platform and does not require third-party information to operate.  

User privacy has always been a central part of the Cardlytics DNA.  

Beginning our journey as a partner to banks and financial institutions required an intense focus on protecting sensitive data and respecting the limits of usage as a trusted platform. As we've grown and expanded our offering, we've maintained that focus on user privacy and found unique and respectful ways to bring the insights from our expansive dataset into the hands of our brand partners.

Cardlytics uses cookies when validating how well our advertising platform is performing. For example, cookies allow us to verify when a consumer makes a purchase after clicking on our ad so we can validate the program’s success to our bank and advertising partners. We only see a consumer as an ID number and never receive any of their Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Google’s announcement does not impact the way in which we measure, report, or use cookies for performance validation. 

Increasing consumer preference for online shopping, coupled with the disappearance of third-party online tracking data, means that marketers will need to rewrite their digital marketing playbook. 

Here’s a look at some comparable tools for digital advertisers to explore: 

Data Collection: Optimize first-party data at the item-level 

The main advantages of third-party cookie data for marketers are the ability to present personalized offers to new customers and provide item-level data for retailers. To continue access to this data, analyze SKU-level purchase data from past transactions to identify purchase trends by demographic, location, or income level. 

Web Traffic: Leverage first-party tools to generate sales and reach 

Third-party cookie data is useful in initiating online calls-to-action like driving traffic to a brand’s website or product pages. To augment the web traffic that was coming from digital ads, engage a card-linked platform to drive click-throughs to the website or app. 

Discovery: Explore marketing tools that engage customers’ emotions 

Third-party cookie data helped retailers and brands capture new customers by tracking web browser history. To identify new customers now, retailers should work with Cardlytics because we identify opportunity through Purchase Intelligence. Our powerful AI and dozens of analysts have insight into where and when customers buy both online and in-store, answering questions that inform business decisions.  

With the industry shift towards better user privacy and the move away from third-party cookies, our first-party purchase intelligence data remains reliable, actionable, and protected. Working with Cardlytics will help marketers better reach the right audience with more relevant offers in a third-party cookie free world.  

More than 110,000 eating and drinking establishments closed in 2020 making the restaurant industry among the hardest hit during the pandemic. And the consistent theme I heard from the restaurant marketing execs I met with during this year’s Restaurant Franchising and Innovation Summit (RFIS) was the struggle to bounce back from a major disruption. As we head into fall and continue to work in an unpredictable climate, it looks like marketers will continue to face this challenge. Enter: omnichannel restaurant marketing, a strategy that will help brands simultaneously gain new customers and grow revenue in an increasingly fragmented marketplace. 

National food spend is down. 

Cardlytics analyzed the spending habits of U.S. online shoppers to help marketers navigate the changes in consumer spend that occurred across the broader food spectrum, including restaurants, grocery, meal kit subscription, third party delivery and non-traditional gas stations that feature mini marts. We learned national food spend declining by 2.5%, which would be the equivalent of all the restaurants in NYC closing for an entire year. Despite that, there have been tremendous opportunities for growth when restaurant marketing leaders were able to successfully target new customers. In other words, the upheaval reduced spending in the category, but opened the door to gaining new, high-value customers. 

This is the advice I shared with the RFIS audience during our panel, “How to use Technology to Acquire New Customers.” 

So how can restaurants win?  

Omnichannel marketing is a customer-centric approach that delivers a consistent, personalized experience for consumers across all your brands. During the pandemic, online ordering became increasingly popular. In 2020, 26% of restaurant purchases came through online channels as compared to 13% in 2019. And we saw this behavior continue even as restaurants and grocery stores began reopening, with online restaurant spend leveling out at 28% of total restaurant spend and grocery at 14% of total grocery spend. 

Now that many people are used to ordering via apps, mobile phones, and online websites, it is likely that this behavior will continue.  

Tip: Recognizing third party delivery apps impact margins but bring in new customers, restaurants should stop worrying about the perceived risk from those platforms and focus on converting in-store only customers to omnichannel via their owned channels. 

An effective omnichannel restaurant strategy means engaging with your customers where they are and accepting that third party delivery is just another touchpoint for you to deliver a seamless experience.  

Here are a few tactics to consider: 

Convert Customers to Omnichannel: The ‘omni customer’ is dining in-store and ordering online. These omnichannel customers tend to spend more than either an in-store only customer or an online only customer, spending 3X as much as a single channel customer on average! It’s obvious that the value lies with these diners.  

More consumers than ever before have shifted their spending habits online so why not take your advertising where they're already spending?

It’s a straightforward task for most digital marketers to cookie and target online customers (at least for now) but targeting in-store only to get them to try online ordering is trickier. At Cardlytics, we help marketers do this by identifying and targeting consumers who have charged a meal in-store with a cash back offer to make a purchase online, or to purchase through a brand’s app. By reaching these single-channel customers and converting them to omni you increase their value. 

Convert Grocery Customers: Grocery has increased their prepared meal offerings, further enticing consumer groups like families, gamers, millennials, and gen z, directly competing for a household’s take out or meal delivery business. And, with grocery share of food spend higher than it was pre-pandemic it continues to be important for restaurants to target these shoppers in an effort to bring spend back.  

Online grocery shoppers are another great conversion point. In 2020, 11% of grocery purchases came through online channels vs 5% in 2019. Restaurants should target these online shoppers to convert them to online restaurant delivery. This blurs the line between in-store and online. Things like digital payments or restaurant specific apps designed to make ordering easier are all ways to entice new customers that are already using technology to purchase within this category. 

Take Share From Your Competitors: Another major struggle that I heard from marketers at RFIS is how to target truly new or lapsed customers. The Cardlytics value proposition is probably most compelling when it’s used to target customers who’ve never interacted with your brand but are regulars at your top competitors. An offer to give your brand a try, whether in-store or online can bring in new customers who are very likely to become regulars.  

If these tactics make sense, but you’re struggling to operationalize them in today’s difficult climate, you should check out this webinar with Fast Casual from Kamron Moore, Cardlytics’ Senior Director of Restaurant Partnerships, Laura Sporrer, Teriyaki Madness’ Senior Marketing Manager, and Stephanie Bauer, The Piada Group’s Director of Marketing. You’ll learn how restaurant marketers are putting these tactics to work with great results.

Summer is in full swing, and the mercury is rising with both the U.S. economy and inflation on an upward trajectory. Consumer trends show that many are undaunted by the rising cost of goods and services and formerly housebound shoppers are keen to spend their dollars outside and in person.

Since our last State of Spend report, total spend has remained consistent, floating between +5% and +10% year-over-year (YoY) over our estimated non-pandemic baseline*.  

Based on consumer trends, it appears consumers are spending more on travel, retail, and restaurant purchases but are spending less on the ‘essentials’ like grocery. This isn’t to say that there’s been a drop in grocery spend, in fact grocery is still doing well YoY, but we are seeing a declining rate of growth as consumers reallocate their wallet share to discretionary categories. 

As consumers venture out, they’re spreading the wealth.

Tip: Focus on Retention 

Our data shows that consumers have expanded the number of brands they buy from, so hiding in your top line sales growth is a customer who may not be committed to your brand for the long term but could be persuaded. 

Flattening the Curve: The Cardlytics’ Recovery Leading Indicator (RLI) is back to flat 

Cardlytics’ RLI tracks spend in select discretionary categories to help brands measure consumer confidence during the recovery. The latest spend trends show more consumers are dining out in-person, shopping in-store and visiting salons—a great indicator of ‘true’ recovery and driver of economic growth.  

What's the implication of the RLI? 

It could be that consumer spending will continue to slow back to the historic averages. If that happens, their brand preferences may follow suit, so a savvy marketing leader should be prepared to invest in re-engaging their most loyal customers and growing their share of wallet by converting more casual new shoppers into long-term loyalists. 

A table for two and a weekend away 

The pandemic hit the dining and travel industries pretty hard and now, more than a year later, we’re seeing improvements in each category since shoppers can now enjoy spending on activities outside of the home. Over the last six months, spend in airline, car rental, and hotel categories has seen significant improvement with car rentals seeing a 24.2 percentage point increase, hotels a 36.9 percentage point increase, and airlines a whopping a 46.8 percentage point increase in year-over-year spend change. Similar trends are present among ticket providers and amusement parks—spend in both areas ramped up really quickly over the last three months as vaccination rates continue to increase.  

Dining continues to see improvement but ordering in remains top dog.  

Dining spend is up 5.3% YoY in early June compared to estimated ‘non-pandemic’ spend in 2020. All restaurant categories continue to improve, with full service seeing the biggest changes between January and June of this year. The quick serve restaurant category remains consistently positive but perhaps the biggest surprise is that restaurant delivery is still going strong. While many expected a decline as in-person dining returned, we're seeing consistent growth compared to last year with restaurant delivery up 129.4% YoY.  

The Bottom Line: 

Consumer confidence continues to grow. However, the COVID-19 Delta variant could be a speed bump to economic recovery and potentially curb spending. But, if consumer trends continue as they have, the second half of the year could show consumer spend patterns that exceed pre-pandemic levels. Marketers should take note of current spend behaviors (they’re not what they used to be) and focus efforts on a customer retention strategies. We’ve seen that consumers are willing to spend, so re-assess customer loyalty and look at share of wallet per category rather than purchase frequency.

*Estimated non-pandemic baseline is calculated by applying YoY growth rates from 2019 to 2020 before the pandemic affected consumer spending. 

Download the Cardlytics case study and learn how to drive engagement and spend for neobanks.

Neobank-Case-StudyDownload

Whether it’s saving the environment, women-focused investing, or supporting local businesses, neobanks offer something for everyone.

With hyper-focused audiences, neobanks (aka “challenger banks”) fill the dovetailing trends of lifestyle marketing and accelerated consumer adoption of online banking. One nationwide survey found that 80% of consumers nationwide now prefer online services over a visit to a physical bank location, and this preference is driving consumers towards these fintech firms.

Growth, Challenges, and Solutions

According to a PwC report, the global neobank market is expected to hit $394.6 billion by 2026, up from $18.6 billion in 2019. Despite the growth, they also face challenges similar to traditional banks like churn and digital engagement and unique hurdles such as fewer products and lack of in-person services. 

By offering a card-linked cash back program, neobanks gain a partner that can address these challenges while providing innovative solutions to attract and retain customers with frictionless purchases from beloved brands.

How Do Cash Back Rewards Drive Engagement?

Cash back rewards programs engage with neobanks’ most enthusiastic customers: millennials and Gen Zers. A Cardlytics survey showed that these cohorts gravitate towards a more modern shopping experience with hassle-free rewards. Add to that the lifestyle or mission-focused component of many neobanks, and it becomes a winning combination. Niche customers such as millennials, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and those having sporadic incomes and earnings embrace innovative technologies, especially cash back rewards that put money back into their wallets to use as they choose.

Neobanks are digital only, which adds to their appeal but also removes in-person opportunities to create stronger relationships with customers. To help minimize customer churn, they can offer products that promote customer loyalty while encouraging in-person purchases. Card-linked cash back rewards programs allow neobanks to create collections of retail brands that their customers love. About 75% of consumers say they favor companies that offer rewards. Despite being online, providing customers with an in-store experience through retailers is essential to long-term success. 

Cardlytics Can Help Neobanks Better Serve Their Customers

Cardlytics’ SDK platform is highly customizable and uses behavioral analytics to drive personalized offers and to increase purchases. Financial institution partners see a 5.6x increase of average transactions per month from previously lapsed cardholders and a 200% increase in spend and transaction frequency from cardholders who previously transacted less than once a week. When multiplied by the number of neobank customers, a cash back rewards program can also become an additional driver of revenue.

The uptick in adoption of online banking has added urgency for neobanks to differentiate in the marketplace. Cash back programs are a streamlined, rewarding way for them to connect to customers while generating revenue. And with a leading digital marketing partner like Cardlytics, neobanks can quickly put money back into their customers’ pockets while strengthening their customer relationships.

Covid precautions and the uncertainty it brings has led to a staycation boom in the UK. From Cardlytics’ UK office, The Summer of Spend report investigates consumer trends in response travel restrictions and offers advice on how brands across the travel, leisure and hospitality sectors can maximize spend opportunities and appeal to new customers.

Download the full report and to read more about the UK's biggest, and most competitive, ‘staycation summer’ in recent years.

UK-State-of-Spend_Summer-2021Download

Cardlytics adds Zolve to growing neobank roster.

We like to say Cardlytics is “built by bankers for banks” and it’s true. Our founders were both bankers who saw the value in having a view of a customer’s total wallet. Since Cardlytics was founded 13 years ago, we’ve been driving results for major U.S. banks. And while banks will always be central to what we do, we are excited about scaling our offering. Enter: the neobanks.

Zolve: A solution for an underserved population 

Catering towards tech-savvy audiences, neobanks make managing finances easy from anywhere in the world. Zolve, in particular, aims to improve accessibility to high-quality banking products for immigrants in the U.S. Zolve’s founder, Rahgunadan G, noticed that many immigrants were forced to wait for months, and in many cases, years to access financial services upon arriving in the U.S. While neobanks may focus on a specific type of customer, the customers' needs remain universal: quality products, secure services and a rewarding experience.

“At Zolve, we are working to provide equitable access to global financial products on one single platform. A tangible rewards program helps create an engaging experience for our customers, and with this partnership, we now have offers across categories that our users find relevant and rewarding” says Raghunandan G, Zolve’s founder. 

A rewarding experience for all 

When it comes to capturing and maintaining consumer loyalty and personalized experiences, neobanks are well-positioned to grab top of wallet advantage through a rewards program.  Neobanks and fintechs have changed the financial landscape over the past decade, offering digital-only solutions to the traditional financial process, while also addressing the needs of their niche audiences. This rise in popularity coincides with a consumer base that prefers shopping and banking online. 

To learn more about how Cardlytics works with neobanks and fintechs, check out our case study.

Atlanta, GA – July 20, 2021 – Cardlytics, Inc., (NASDAQ: CDLX), one of the largest digital advertising platforms, today announced that its second quarter ended June 30, 2021 financial results will be released on Tuesday, August 3, 2021, 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 3993796. Shortly after the conclusion of the call, a replay of this conference call will be available through 8:00 PM ET on August 10, 2021 at (855) 859-2056 (domestic) or (404) 537-3406 (international).  The replay passcode is 3993796. 

About Cardlytics

Cardlytics (NASDAQ: CDLX) is a digital advertising platform. We partner with financial institutions to run their rewards programs that promote customer loyalty and deepen 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, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin, and Visakhapatnam. In March 2021, Cardlytics acquired Dosh, a transaction-based advertising platform. In May 2021, Cardlytics acquired Bridg, a customer data platform. Learn more at www.cardlytics.com.