Across the U.S., Upside users — like many consumers — made travel plans to ring in the New Year. Whether they were New Yorkers fleeing to the south to escape the cold or Midwesterners traversing the central states to reach a coast, consumers continued to spend with numerous Upside gas, grocery, and restaurant partners while in transit.

With Upside transaction data, we can pinpoint in which states most folks stayed put, and in which states local consumers traveled elsewhere to spend the holiday.

Tracking New Year’s travels

The interactive maps below show the starting points and destination states for Upside users during New Year’s. For the first map, use the right panel to select a destination state and see where most visiting consumers came from as their starting point. 

Say, for example, you select Kentucky from the right panel. We can see that the Bluegrass State received most of its visitors from Indiana, Tennessee, and Ohio.

Where did Upsiders come from when claiming an offer on New Years Eve 2022?

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Now, let’s try the inverse. The following interactive map shows which states’ own residents shopped the most elsewhere. If we select Kentucky again, we see a spike in out-of-state sales from Kentuckians in those same states as above — Indiana, Tennessee, and Ohio.

Where did Upsiders go when claiming an offer on New Years Eve 2022?

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This data shows that New Year’s Eve travel and shopping are highly reciprocal between states. 

For retailers, that means even if your regular consumers left home for the holiday, you likely made up the difference by serving out-of-staters coming to you. Upside helped direct those out-of-staters to participating retailers when they were deciding where to buy. 

The data also shows interesting travel patterns related to each state’s density.

As you can see from the chart above, residents in larger states by area and population (Arizona, New York) stayed local more often than those in less dense states (Kentucky, Wyoming). In the same vein, these more populous states tend to have more Upside retail partners.

Using Upside to capture New Year’s shopping in 2023

As consumers traversed the U.S. for their New Year’s plans, Upside provided retailers with access to roaming users wherever their celebrations led them. Out-of-towners claimed 9.78% of Upside promotions on New Year's Eve alone, a massive spike in new sales that helped retailers offset transactions lost when their regular customers went out of town.   

Thanks to Upside’s nationwide footprint, we’re able to serve users wherever they are, and help retailers nearby earn business they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. No matter where your travels or your business takes you in 2023, Upside is here to help.  

To learn more about how Upside can help drive customers to your business, get in touch: