A Winter Weather Advisory for Better MER

Snow? Hear us out.

Turn your memory back to Spring of 2020.

It was a challenging time at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and much of the country stayed at home. In doing so, people focused their purchasing power from physical stores to Ecommerce. So when people stayed home, they bought more stuff online.

A lot more.

Ecommerce boomed in Q2 2020.

You know what else keeps people at home? Inclement weather.

We couldn’t help but notice that MER started to tick upward as snow began to fall in colder parts of the country. Here is Utah Snow-water equivalent compared to MER.

Snowfall has been well ahead of normal this winter, with some locations in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California reaching +200% of median snow water equivalent. Many places throughout the West haven’t seen this much snow to start the winter since at least 2018-19.

On the more extreme end of the spectrum, people that live in areas with exceptional snowfall can’t even leave their homes:

Alta, UT has declared Interlodge (essentially, a shelter-in-place order when avalanche danger is too high) a few times this season:

Palisades Tahoe had too much snow to open for skiing.

Buffalo, NY had enough snow for people to take days to get out.

If you can’t leave your home, the only way you can shop is online - just like Q2 2020.

On the less extreme side of things, like a deep freeze in Austin, TX, residents are just less likely to venture out into cold weather that they’re not accustomed to, and don't have vehicles (and tires) that are appropriate.

So are big weather events a time to ramp up spend at a higher MER? Potentially — we’re working to formalize this theory.

Want to utilize our knowledge to help your marketing?
Give us a call today.

In the meantime, we hope you are enjoying the snowfall. I am.