When 230 small businesses on Tel Aviv’s Jerusalem Boulevard were cut off from traffic due to light rail construction, business owners took to the streets, protesting the city project, according to Colu’s official press release.
Colu introduced a cashback program for the troubled area. Funded by the city, residents, and visitors to the area who used the Colu app received a 30% rebate on purchases made at participating shops. The rebate could be spent at any Tel Aviv retailer who was part of the Colu network, ensuring the money stayed in the Tel Aviv community.
The pilot program, which was funded by the Tel Aviv Municipality and implemented through Colu’s app, has been a success. Between September 27 to November 15, 2019, Colu drove over USD 550,000 into area businesses, with over USD 150,000 in subsidies coming from the municipality. According to store-owner reports, revenues, which had dropped by 30%, returned to pre-construction levels.
Colu’s app drove over 4,000 users to the Jerusalem Boulevard area, 70% of whom hadn’t shopped there at all during the previous 3 months. Those shoppers completed over 23,000 transactions during the pilot period. For the Tel Aviv Municipality, Colu was instrumental in opening lines of communication with area business owners and building trust. They took an urban regeneration approach to the situation, as they found new ways to encourage community involvement to solve a very local challenge, the press release added.
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