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Cleanliness is next to “Successfulness” — Stores with the best bathrooms enjoy 33% more foot traffic — This and other retail insights revealed in new study

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Cuebiq and GasBuddy Foot Traffic Study Sheds Light on Summertime Customer Behavior

Boston (October 23, 2017) — GasBuddy, the only smartphone app connecting drivers with their Perfect Pit Stop, and Cuebiq, a leading location intelligence and measurement company with the largest, most accurate location database in the U.S., have released their quarterly joint study examining foot traffic of GasBuddy users to convenience stores and gas stations across the U.S. in Q3 2017. This latest footfall trend report looks at summertime trends across the US and how seasonality impacted offline consumer behaviors.

Leveraging Cuebiq’s proprietary intelligence platform and data collection methodology, the companies analyzed anonymous geo-behavioral patterns of GasBuddy’s app users, which allowed them to gain insights into its users’ offline behavior such as frequency of station visits, fueling patterns, how long they spend at a location and brand loyalty, and offered recommendations to make these insights actionable for retailers.

Key study highlights include:

  • Good restrooms are good for business: With drivers taking to the roads for summer trips, there was a strong correlation between restroom quality and foot traffic. The study analyzed nearly 61,000 stations near interstates and found that those with above-average ratings on GasBuddy saw a 33% increase in foot traffic over those with below-average ratings. The top-rated brands for restroom quality during Q3 were 1) Buc-ee’s, 2) Kwik Trip, and 3) Kelley’s Market.
  • Summer was a time to shop and travel:The first three weeks of July were the most highly-trafficked, and the final week of September was the least. From Q2 to Q3, the top categories for uplift in foot traffic were 1) Leisure – 59%, 2) Gas Stations – 56%, and 3) Economy Hotels – 51%.
  • Meijer captures the top spot: Previously ranked second during Q2 2017 for the highest ratio of footfall per station, Meijer takes the top spot for Q3–with more than 4 times the industry average. The previous winner, Ricker’s, moves into a close second place.
  • Less repeat visits, more dwell time: As GasBuddy users traveled away from home, the percentage of users who visited stores once a week or more decreased 4.5% during Q3. With stops to get snacks, use restrooms, and refuel, dwell time increased slightly with 70% of users spending more than 5 minutes at a store.
  • View the full report here.

    Methodology
    From July 1 to September 30, 2017, GasBuddy and Cuebiq analyzed location visit data at more than 100 fuel and convenience store brands across the United States to understand foot traffic trends, provide geo-behavioral and consumer insights and identify the impact of key factors such as the customer experience, ratings and holiday travel on POI visits.

    About GasBuddy
    GasBuddy is a smartphone app connecting drivers with their Perfect Pit Stop. GasBuddy is the leader in crowdsourced information to help drivers find the best gas prices, closest stations, friendliest service, cleanest restrooms, tastiest coffee and much more. GasBuddy is the leading source for the most accurate, real-time fuel prices at more than 140,000 gas stations in the U.S., Canada and Australia. The Company’s B2B Retailer Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), known as GasBuddy Business Pages, provides Fuel Marketers and Retailers their best opportunity to maintain their station information, manage their brand, and promote to their target consumer audience.

    About Cuebiq
    Cuebiq is a next generation location intelligence company, leveraging the largest database of accurate and precise location data in the U.S. Its leading data intelligence platform analyzes location patterns of 61 million monthly active U.S. smartphone users on over 180 mobile apps and 2 in 5 smartphones globally, allowing businesses to glean actionable insights about real-world consumer behaviors and trends. Cuebiq provides clients geo-behavioral audiences for cross-platform ad targeting, the industry’s only SaaS based real-time campaign optimization and footfall attribution tools, and offline location analytics. Cuebiq does not collect any personally identifiable information. Its privacy-sensitive methodology has earned the company membership status with the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), the leading self-regulatory industry association dedicated to responsible data collection and its use for digital advertising. Cuebiq is headquartered in New York with offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Italy and China.

    For budget-minded drivers, GasBuddy is the travel and navigation app that is used by more North American drivers to save money on gas than any other. Unlike fuel retailer apps, as well as newer apps focused on fuel savings, GasBuddy covers 150,000+ gas stations in North America, giving drivers 27 ways to save on fuel. That’s why GasBuddy has been downloaded nearly 90 million times – more than any other travel and navigation app focused on gas savings.