EDA discontinues cash-back app for businesses impacted by bridge closure
Published 8:58 pm Monday, January 27, 2025
- The Cypress Creek Bridge is restricted to one-way traffic for the duration of VDOT's nearly two-year rehabilitation. (File photo)
Isle of Wight County’s Economic Development Authority, citing a lack of interest among participants, has discontinued a program that pays cash back to shoppers who patronize businesses affected by the Cypress Creek Bridge rehabilitation.
The EDA committed $5,000 last year to launch Open Rewards, a free smartphone app developed by California-based technology company Bludot that allows shoppers to earn 5%, or up to $10, cash back on purchases at participating businesses on Main and North and South Church streets in proximity to the bridge, which since last January has been restricted to a single westbound lane to facilitate work that the Virginia Department of Transportation expects to continue through the fall.
Economic Development Coordinator Nicole Talton told the EDA board at its Jan. 14 meeting that as of that date just under $400 of the startup funding remained. By Jan. 27, the county had sent a message to users stating those remaining funds had been depleted.
As of Jan. 14 there were 443 users of the app, a 5% increase from the 418 users Talton had reported in December. The program, since its launch last May, has had a nearly $141,000 economic impact, Talton said.
Despite this, Talton said only 68 out of just over 120 eligible businesses had earned rewards through the program as of Jan. 14. Of these, 31 were services, 20 were retailers, 16 were restaurants and one was a grocery store.
“From what I’m seeing it had a minimal impact on the retailers in town,” said EDA board member Tim Hillegass.
Talton recommended the program be discontinued. Talton said Bluedot had agreed to give Isle of Wight users until Feb. 28, or until startup funds ran out, to redeem their rewards. Isle of Wight’s Economic Development Department had sent a message to users on Jan. 9 urging them to redeem rewards by Jan. 30.
Continuing the program would have entailed the county spending roughly $3,000 on maintenance and marketing of the app and deciding on a dollar amount to replenish the funding that pays out rewards.
Of the program’s six months in operation, November saw the highest number of monthly purchases by users of the app at participating businesses, according to data Talton shared.
The program didn’t gain anywhere near the traction of a 2020 initiative when the county and the towns of Smithfield and Windsor each contributed portions of federal funding they’d received through that year’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act to fund the #IsleShopSmall gift certificate program, which allowed locals and tourists to purchase up to five $40 gift certificates for $20 apiece. During the first round, 5,000 certificates funded with a combined $105,000 in CARES money sold out within 90 minutes in November of that year.