This episode reveals how road traffic, as measured by Waze, serves as a critical economic indicator for retailers. Suzie Reider from Waze discusses the dramatic impact of decreased mobility on retail businesses and how Waze Ads provide a vital advertising channel for both large chains and small businesses to re-engage with customers as traffic recovers. Ecommerce operators will learn about the resilience of local retail advertising despite lockdowns.
Key takeaways
Traffic data, like Waze's, is an early and unconventional economic indicator; monitor it to gauge consumer activity and prepare for shifts in local retail engagement.
Leverage location-based advertising platforms like Waze Ads to target nearby customers effectively, especially for brick-and-mortar retail and quick-serve businesses.
Observe advertising spend trends during economic downturns; the shift from campaign cancellations to pauses suggests a strategic adaptation by retailers, indicating a readiness to resume marketing quickly.
Even with limited budgets, small businesses can utilize hyper-local advertising platforms, as exemplified by Waze Ads allowing for spends as low as $2 per day.
Develop omnichannel strategies that integrate physical foot traffic with digital engagement, recognizing that even in a digital-first era, physical mobility remains crucial for many retail sectors.
GDP and unemployment are one set of statistics, but another way to measure the extent of the economic slowdown brought by the pandemic is a bit more mundane: Traffic.
According to the maps and navigation app Waze, traffic was down around 70% in the early days of the pandemic.
"It was like a light switch," Suzie Reider, a managing director of global ads at Waze, said on the Modern Retail Podcast.
Within its app, the Google-owned company can offer ads for nearby businesses for drivers, including pins on the map and larger "takeover ads" filling the top third of a user's screen ("it doesn't actually play until you're stopped," Reider said).
That part of the business suffered from the drop in traffic too, of course.
"We saw a marked decline and decrease in our own advertising revenue in... it started in March," Reider said. "Then we saw these incredible, super exciting, quick gains as we started to move through the summer and then back into the fall."
But recent signs indicate that the next wave of the pandemic may not to as harsh on the retail economy as it was earlier in the year. In France and the UK, where lockdowns have been reinstated, "you see immediate pausing of campaigns but you don't see the cancellations," Reider said.
Waze Ads' biggest categories are quick serve, "casual dining," entertainment and gas, and it works with both big chains and with small businesses that can spend as little as $2 a day on ads.
Before the pandemic, according to Fortune, the app had 130 million active monthly users around the world.
What does this episode say about retail & omnichannel?
Traffic data, like Waze's, is an early and unconventional economic indicator; monitor it to gauge consumer activity and prepare for shifts in local retail engagement.
What does this episode say about paid acquisition?
Leverage location-based advertising platforms like Waze Ads to target nearby customers effectively, especially for brick-and-mortar retail and quick-serve businesses.
What does this episode say about analytics & attribution?
Observe advertising spend trends during economic downturns; the shift from campaign cancellations to pauses suggests a strategic adaptation by retailers, indicating a readiness to resume marketing quickly.
What does this episode say about retail & omnichannel?
Even with limited budgets, small businesses can utilize hyper-local advertising platforms, as exemplified by Waze Ads allowing for spends as low as $2 per day.
What does this episode say about retail & omnichannel?
Develop omnichannel strategies that integrate physical foot traffic with digital engagement, recognizing that even in a digital-first era, physical mobility remains crucial for many retail sectors.
