Is your city ready for the next economic curveball? Building resilience with dynamic local stimulus

City leaders and economic development professionals know the drill: global events, from supply chain snags to shifting trade policies like tariffs, can send immediate ripples through our local economies. We see costs rise, key industries face pressure, and the small businesses that form the backbone of our communities feel the strain. In these moments, how do we go from reactive to proactive and build economic resilience to an unforeseen economic curveball? How do we support everyone—quickly and effectively?

Traditional tools often fall short. Complex grant programs take time, broad tax breaks lack precision, and simply encouraging people to "shop local" needs more tangible incentives in tight times. We need smarter, faster, more adaptable solutions that maximize the impacts from our investments in the right way at the right time.

Leveraging Open Rewards as your city's first-response tool to an economic curveball

Imagine deploying a targeted economic stimulus program almost instantly, directly boosting spending at your local businesses without adding any burden to the merchants themselves. That's the power of Open Rewards by Bludot.

Open Rewards is a city-sponsored platform designed for today's economic realities. Here’s how it empowers your city:

• Effortless support for businesses: Forget complex sign-ups or costly POS integrations. With Open Rewards, local businesses can be included automatically -  no action needed from the business owners. They operate as usual while benefiting from increased customer traffic driven by the rewards program your city sponsors

• Simple & rewarding for customers: Customers download the Open Rewards app, link a card or simply upload receipts (cash or card), and earn real cash back rewards when they shop at eligible local spots. It makes supporting local businesses easy and rewarding, especially when household budgets are tight

• Keeping dollars local: The rewards customers earn must be redeemed back in your community, ensuring that every dollar your city invests stays local and generates the maximum economic impact. The entire system is designed to incentivize spending within your city limits, strengthening the local economic multiplier effect

Responding dynamically to challenges

Economic shocks aren't uniform. Maybe tariffs hit your agricultural base, reducing local disposable income. Maybe rising costs are squeezing specific neighborhoods or business sectors. This is where Open Rewards truly shines as a resilience tool by responding with dynamic targeting and precision:

• Adjustable incentives: Need an immediate boost? Increase the rewards city-wide. Want to drive traffic during specific days of the week or times of the year? City of Las Vegas, NV boosted their rewards during the slower summer months. Facing holiday sluggishness? Many of our cities have launched Small Business Saturday promotions

• Targeted impact: Target rewards on geographic zones that need a boost or on sectors that are hit hardest. For example, City of Camden, NJ has been offering 50% rewards for their Urban Enterprise Zone. Columbia Pike, VA targeted rewards for businesses during a major road construction.

• Rapid deployment: Because business onboarding is instant, you can deploy or adjust far faster than traditional methods allow

• Timed offerings: By setting an expiration period on the reward, it creates a built-in incentive to redeem that reward—by making another purchase at a local business—before it disappears. This feature is key to driving consumer behavior, combats reward hoarding and ensures the funds you invest actively circulate into your local economy. It increases the velocity of purchases, maximizing the timely impact of your investment

• Maximum impact: Crucially, expired, unspent rewards automatically return to the community pool. No city dollar is wasted, and every dollar gets spent locally, or it recycles back into the program for another consumer to earn, maximizing the impact of your program

The Lancaster Auto Mall example

The new automotive-specific tariffs are sending profound impacts throughout the entire industry. City of Lancaster, CA, leveraging the Open Rewards program, quickly launched their Shop Drive Earn program that offers $175 rewards for any customer that buys or leases a new car from any of the 9 dealerships in their Auto Mall.

• Attracting major purchases: This significant incentive helps local dealerships compete and draws customers – potentially from across the region – making Lancaster the destination for a major purchase

• Creating powerful spillover: Here’s the brilliance: that $175 reward isn't just a rebate. It's loaded into the consumer's Open Rewards app to be spent exclusively at Lancaster businesses – restaurants, retail stores, local services. A single car sale directly fuels dozens more transactions throughout the city

Beyond emergencies: driving ongoing economic development

While invaluable during challenging times, Open Rewards is a powerful engine for ongoing economic growth. Use it to:

• Promote specific shopping districts or areas.

• Run seasonal shop local campaigns with measurable results.

• Welcome new residents with introductory rewards.

• Build continuous community love and pride.

• Gather valuable data on local spending patterns to inform future strategies.

Bludot provides the data dashboard you need to track the program's success, measure the ROI of your city's investment, and clearly communicate the positive impact to stakeholders. It’s about making data-driven decisions and proving the value of your economic development efforts with minimal administrative overhead for your team.

Is your city prepared?

In an unpredictable world, building economic resilience is paramount. Open Rewards offers a dynamic, flexible, and impactful way to support your businesses, provide stimulus to your residents, and take control of your local economy.

Join the 200+ communities across the country already utilizing Bludot to empower their communities. See what Open Rewards would look like in your community.