Small business Saturday falls on November 27th this year. It is an American shopping holiday held during the Saturday after Thanksgiving in the United States during one of the busiest shopping periods of the year. It gives focus to small businesses and offers customers the unique ability to support both local and online small businesses.
On the other hand, It gives small businesses an opportunity to thank loyal customers and gain new customers as well. This holiday was created to give more attention to small businesses on this day and year-round.
Small Business Saturday was trademarked by American Express in 2010. It was created to celebrate small businesses and draw shoppers during the holiday season. Since 2010, it has been celebrated beyond being attached to American Express and has been recognized by local business organizations across the United States, congress and the Small Business Administration (SBA).
Today Small Business Saturday is celebrated with local events, online shopping and exclusive discounts and deals for shoppers.
Preparing for Small Business Saturday can take some time but can be truly rewarding for virtually any type of business.
Here are seven tips for a successful Small Business Saturday:
Events: See If your local small business organizations or other small businesses in your town have any events on this day to participate in, and if not host your own. Partnering with other businesses can get more customers into your store and create excitement around the event. Contact your local Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to see if they have anything planned for that day and find out how to join it. If your town is not hosting anything then throw your own event, invite other small businesses, and promote it. Create a map of all the stores participating in this event to make it easy for shoppers to know where to go. If you are exclusively an online business, you can reach out to other online companies that match your business to partner online. This will create more promotion and gives you the chance to form a relationship with this business for any future needs. You can even throw an online event as well.
Have a theme and use it across all promotions. Pick a theme for the holiday and use it in all your promotions and even when decorating for the holiday and event. This way all the content has a similar, recognizable theme.
Choose your customer discount and have an exclusive deal to draw in customers. You want to offer a discount to entice customers to come in and shop. Some good promotions include buy one get one free, percent off total discount, and even offering a sale on a specific item or service you sell that doesn’t go on sale much. Offer a raffle for anyone who buys something at your store that day and gives away an item from your store. Make sure you advertise this discount on all your promotions because that is going to be what draws customers in. This raffle could even be a bundle of your most popular products.
Include personalization: to give customers a small business feeling. This could be a thank you card, photo, about the small business to make customers feel cared for and a part of the community.
Promote holiday: Use social media to gain exposure for your event and special offers. Start posting on social media to remind customers of the upcoming event. It will remind your followers about the upcoming event, and they can even share the posts on their social media to get more attention. Follow local organizations and see if they will promote the holiday and your store on their page. Use hashtags such as #SmallBusinessSaturday and others like this to connect to more people in the community. Create flyers and hang them up around the store, around town, and even hand them out around the community. This will help to locally spread the word about the upcoming holiday. Use email marketing to remind your contacts about the event. Send a couple emails leading up to the event to promote it.
Make sure business is online for everyone to shop if they feel uncomfortable with in-person shopping. Offer in store pickup for the following days for anyone shopping local who doesn’t want to attend the event. This way they are still getting the discount and supporting your business.
American Express: offers templates to help small businesses promote this holiday: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/merchant/shop-small.html#toolkit?linknav=us-loy-howtoparticipate-explore-shopsmallstudio. You can create flyers, social media posts, and more with your branding. They also offer tips on hosting the perfect Small Business Saturday event.
Why Small Business Saturday and Shopping Local Matters:
Small Business Saturday is important because it emphasizes the importance of shopping locally and supporting small businesses. When you buy from small businesses, you know who you are buying from, and you can feel good because that money is staying locally in the economy. It is good for small businesses because they are gaining new customers that if they are satisfied with their purchase will hopefully keep coming back and they can grow into loyal customers
When shopping locally, $68 for every $100 staying in the community, while only $43 stays in the community when shopping at national chains. Keeping the money locally in the economy helps to improve your community.
Whether you are giving your purchases as gifts or shopping for yourself, there is nothing better than getting a unique product from a store you know if it is going to benefit the community.