BOSTON – GasBuddy and Cuebiq released a quarterly joint study examining foot traffic of GasBuddy users to convenience stores and gas stations across the United States in Q3 2017. This latest footfall trend report looks at summertime trends across the U.S. and how seasonality impacted offline consumer behaviors.

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.
• 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%.
• 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.

Between July 1 and September 30, GasBuddy and Cuebiq examined 33.4 million consumer trips to the pumps and convenience stores. Read the full report.