Upside's Top 10 Blogs of 2024

Every year, Upside analyzes billions of retail transactions from tens of thousands of businesses. We share these insights with our retail partners and the public to help business owners make smarter, better-informed decisions.

In 2024, a few pieces received outsized attention, and the following 10 blogs were our most popular pieces from the past year.

We reviewed the loyalty programs from best-in-class American grocers — including big-box retailers, conventional grocers, and wholesale clubs — to see if successful programs drive more market share. In short, it’s not likely. That’s because most programs have similar features and benefits, making it exceedingly difficult to differentiate a brand with loyalty alone.

What do customers say is the reason they choose one gas station over another? Upside surveyed 500 consumers to see which kind of fuel promotions they found favorable. Then, we reviewed transaction data from 30,000 fuel sites to learn what really changes buying behavior. When we compared the two data sets, we found a gap between what customers say they want and how they actually behave.

With prices rising and their options multiplying, grocery shoppers are seeking out value, some by trading down in the category. Facing razor-thin margins, most regional grocers don’t have the flexibility to reduce their prices any further. So how can they close the gap to keep earning trips from their customers?  

To confront today’s competitive pressures and economic headwinds, retailers have to look for ways to maximize profit. How they choose to do that — whether it’s passing increased costs onto their customers, or finding a more efficient pricing strategy — matters a great deal. Our take: A more thoughtful approach can create greater value for everyone.

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for convenience store items soared. But despite top-line revenue growth, the current picture for c-stores is more complex. Upside recently analyzed four years of transaction data from 1,700+ c-store locations and found that transactions per day and items per transaction are actually trending down.

The 2024 Consumer Spend Report was our biggest project of the year. We analyzed 1.1 billion transactions and heard directly from over 7,000 consumers to create a robust picture of consumer behavior and how certain sentiments shape the way we shop. This blog previewed our five key findings from the report.

When the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates — as it did twice at the end of 2024 — consumer purchasing power increases. Lots of people understand that sentence in theory. But what does it actually look like in practice? We broke down the numbers to help visualize the impact of a rate cut in the average consumer’s life.

When fuel margins shrink, retailers earn less — making it harder to sustain investments made during high-margin periods. Cutting costs may seem like the right answer, but the wrong cuts can reduce revenue, leading to even more cost-cutting. How can retailers grow their business during low-margin times and avoid that “vicious cycle”?

In our first of two pulse surveys from 2024 — a quick check-in with retailers to gauge their priorities — we found that cost management remains a top concern, even as inflation dramatically cooled from its 2022 highs. Rather than benefiting from inflation, where customers spend more for the same goods, it has been the most common headwind that retailers battled against in late 2023 and early 2024.

In our first pulse survey of the year, retailers were focused on survival. But by the time we checked in again for our second survey, that mindset had started to shift. If “survival” was the theme at the beginning of the year, “growth” was the theme as it ended. Now, retailers are thinking about how to make smart investments that lead to sustainable profit.