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Small business Saturday is a relatively new annual holiday that brings to light the importance and value of small, independently run American businesses. Similarly how black Friday and Cyber Monday brings in extra revenue and exposure to big businesses, small business Saturday is a showcase and celebration of the ‘little guys’.
The vast influx of superstores and shopping malls across the US has taken a massive chunk of business and custom away from main street retail stores; and Returning this business is what small business Saturday is all about, bringing lost business back to the local community.
Initially established in 2010, small business Saturday aims to attract the masses to great deals, unique finds and great customer service only found amongst the independent retailers around the country.
The day is also a fantastic opportunity for local businesses to network and promote their brands to a broader audience, encouraging them to adjust their shopping habits and support the community around them.
While small business Saturday has been put in place to bring in additional customers, and exposure to small retailers; it is 100% down to these businesses to deliver the goods.
Business owners need to take charge, create enticing window displays, make exiting offers and market themselves to their potential customer base in order to have a successful day.
The following guide is going to explain the best practices to follow to ensure your small business gets the most out of small business Saturday.
Small Business Saturday is a fantastic, relatively new annual holiday established in 2010 which has been put in place to encourage consumers to shop at local small businesses, instead of the large superstores and shopping malls that are spreading like wildfire.
The Holiday allows small businesses to showcase their products/services and draw awareness to how it important it is to put money back into the local economy.
Many people believe that local businesses are overpriced and only offer dated products, so the day is the perfect opportunity for business owners to set the record straight and prove their merits.
Supporting local businesses also creates more jobs, locally available tax money and an improvement in community spirit.
This year, Small Business Saturday will be on November 30, 2019. The perfect time for consumers to start making their purchases for Christmas.
In 2020, Small Business Saturday will be taking place on November 28. It is important for retailers to plan well in advance for small business Saturday year on year. Because if they are executing their deals to full effect, they should see an increase in custom each and every subsequent year that they participate.
The organizers of small business Saturday decided to situate the day after Thanksgiving, a day after Black Friday and two days before Cyber Monday.
This is to prove to customers that small retailers can keep up with the big boys in terms of deals and customer service, and the weekend marks the start of the holiday shopping season, so it is the best opportunity for customers to make gift purchases at great prices.
You might be thinking that this also sounds great and a fantastic chance to showcase your store and hopefully build a bigger customer base, but how do you go about registering for small business Saturday and how much is it going to cost you.
Luckily for all small business owners, there is no need to register yourself or your store to any organization to take part, nor is there any obligation to pay for marketing or advertising material for the holiday.
Although, should you need a helping hand with your marketing and advertisement campaigns, American express offers loads of free materials that you can use for exposure, all geared towards small business owners.
There are loads of different tools that you can use to create personalized leaflets, social media posts, billboard signs, and many more advertisement options; all that will showcase your brand name alongside American express on their small business Saturday hub, which is great exposure.
American Express also offers instruction materials on how to host your small business Saturday in a unique way, such as food markets, clothing fairs, and location pop-ups.
There are an endless amount of factors that can contribute to the success of your small business Saturday.
There are many strategies that you can put in place to improve success on small business Saturday, these include:
Those are just a few of many strategies; there are literally thousands of different techniques that you can use to broaden your customer base, increase your shop’s footfall, and improve sales.
Consider both your strengths and target market to best put your efforts to good use.
For a triumphant Small Business Saturday, one of the first and best places to start is right on your doorstep – Small business Saturday is all about staying local after all!
Reach out and speak to other small businesses and organizations in your local and found out if they are doing anything for the event. Partnering up with other businesses can be an excellent way of broadening your regular customer base.
A good place to search for local retailers holding small business Saturday events is through your local business alliance, chamber of commerce, or if your town has one, a local first organization.
Organizations such as these a great to connect with and will most likely be able to point you in the right direction of like-minded businesses that may already have events planned.
With any luck, you should hopefully be put in contact with an already established event; if not it might be time to start thinking about hosting your own small business event and inviting other small businesses to attend.
The advantage of setting up your own event is that you have complete control over what kind of businesses are invited, and you can create a real buzz around the day by encouraging influential people in the area to spread the word.
If there are no events already being hosted in your local area, perhaps one of the best things that you can do is to host and promote your own event.
Even if there are already events in place, they might not suit your business model or be geared up toward your target market; so starting your own might still be the best option.
Step 1 would be to contact other small businesses and see if they would be interested in joining the event and setting up an initial meeting. A casual meet and greet is an excellent way to brainstorm up some ideas, explain what small business Saturday is all about and start networking with like-minded business owners.
Discussing ways that you can bring additional customers and sales to the community will almost always spark interest and positivity.
There are many ways that your event can make your small business Saturday more successful for yourself and others.
For example, you can encourage shoppers to follow a map of all of the participating stores so that they visit each and everyone, and by doing so, they receive a free gift or further discount in the cooperative retailers.
Incentives such as the above are an easy way to make the day more fun for shoppers, and more profitable for small businesses.
Another event plan could be as simple as setting up a central popup stand that advertises all participants of the event and points shoppers in the right direction through flyers and other advertisement material etc.
It may seem like something that did at school to promote the yearly car wash or bake sale, but posters and flyers are a tried and tested method that does really work.
Getting the word out and bringing attention to the community is the most important tool to use in order to achieve a successful small business Saturday. If nobody knows that the event is happening, then you will see no increase in custom.
Advertise the event to your customers through posters in your windows and throughout your store, there’s no such thing as too many posters, and as a second point of call get some cheap flyers printed and hand them out door to door, or put them on parked cars – get the word out any way that you can!
American Express offers free material for small business day on their site that you can personalize, or you can use design websites such as Canva.
If you want something to be put together by a professional or something that matches your brand exactly, you can hire a graphic design freelancer through sites such as Upwork and Fiverr for a relatively low fee.
It is no secret that social media is the most powerful advertisement tool available today and is the best/easiest way to reach a huge audience.
Self-promotion through social media is as, if not more important than in-store advertisement, and the best part is that it is completely free.
To utilize social media to its full potential, build a loyal following through regular posting, and by offering value. This can be done by offering exclusive follower discount codes, competitions and early releases.
As well as an advertisement and promotion tool, social media is also the most comprehensive networking tool. Sites such as facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn make it easy to connect with like-minded businesses and customers. Like, comment and share posts relevant to your business and build relationships with people both near and far.
As small business Saturday nears in, document your plans, preparations and promotions and post them relevant hashtags. E.g, #SmallBusinessSaturday #ShopcLocal #MainStreetStrore, etc.
As with any event, proper planning is absolutely key; without a plan, you are essentially setting yourself up for failure.
So in addition to pulling all the strings involved in putting together a local event for small business Saturday, it is imperative to plan out your individual deals, sales and offers that you intend on utilizing to specifically attract customers to YOUR business.
For example, if you’re a food-led business, you could offer a discounted set menu for small business Saturday, or maybe even a wintertime hog roast that sure to pull in the crowds.
If you’re a cosmetics store, you could offer free consultations on the week of small business Saturday, to encourage return custom after the date, or perhaps a discount scheme where customers of 3 or more items get a half-price incentive item.
Properly planned out deals that speak to your target demographic, is essential for achieving success. It would not be wise to offer free shoe shinning at hat shop, nor would it be wise to offer half-price makeovers at a general handyman store.
Nobody knows your business and customers better than you do, but to market your business and get the most out of small business Saturday, you might want to consider following some of these marketing strategies suggested by professional marketers, consultants, and other business owners that have participated successfully in previous years.
Martha Krejci, a professional business coach, says that one of her most successful and well-received tactics for retail stores on small business day is bundle raffles.
Putting together hampers of most popular products and creating an enticing raffle can bring in a huge amount of custom to your store.
The idea is that for the cost of a raffle ticket, $5 or so, your customers could potentially win a bundle of products worth $100. So If 500 people buy just one raffle ticket, that’s a profit of $2,400, plus you get to showcase your best products to a huge audience.
Martha Krejci also heavily encourages small business owners to put themselves in the shoes of their customers, and ask themselves “what would I be looking for in a deal when entering this store”. Understanding your potential customers is an essential element in running a successful business.
Building an email list and sending out marketing emails regularly is an incredibly powerful tool for the promotion of the goods/services that you offer.
An email list can only be built over time, encouraging in-store customers and social media followers to sign up in order to receive exclusive deals and generous news/offers.
To utilise email marketing for small business Saturday, send out an email about a month before promoting your sales, then gradually increase anticipation by sending follow up emails weekly.
On the week of small business Saturday, you could send out an exclusive unique discount code that can be used in-store on Saturday, and to encourage them to forward the email to their friends, so that they can receive a code also.
It is only but human nature to want to feel special, so offering exclusive deals is one of the most effective techniques to use in order to drive sales dramatically.
This is a tactic used widely by sellers of subscriptions or memberships; only opening their books for new members on a certain date, for example, small business Saturday; and because of the small window, people don’t have time to ponder or debate whether or not purchase, instead going ahead out of fear of missing out.
Exclusivity will always drive sales.
Where small businesses thrive, and big businesses stumble, is the value that is added to customers through personal touches and tailored sentiment.
Getting to know your customers personally encourages return custom and a sense of loyalty to your store, even when offers are not currently in circulation.
A great way to make small business Saturday a success is by emphasizing the importance of personal touches. This can be done in countless ways, and it really comes down to what you believe your customers will appreciate most.
You could:
Personal touches such as these will make customers feel unique and well catered for, something that most big businesses lack.
Small business Saturday is an incredibly important day for local businesses. Many main streets around the US have become ghost towns due to the increase in superstores, shopping malls and chains. While these big businesses do offer a certain aspect of convenience, they will never be able to match the customer service and personal touch offered by main street stores.
To big businesses, customers are just numbers that essentially translate into profits. To small businesses, on the other hand, customers are real people, and each and every one are important to the livelihood of the store owner.
Small business day has been put in place primarily to benefit the small businesses and there owners, but it also greatly benefits the consumers.
By shopping local, consumers pump money directly into the local community, which in turn leads to improvement in local services and public amenities.
On average, $68 of every $100 spent locally, stays in the community; whereas every $100 spent non locally, only $48 stays in the community, which is a huge difference.
Another key point to make is that without the support of the local community, small businesses will simply fade out and eventually cease to exist. Small business day is a fantastic encouragement for small businesses to promote themselves and prove their worth, and for consumers to give them a chance.
In 2010 Small Business Saturday was officially trademarked by the superpower corporation that is American express. The day’s initial intentions were to simply celebrate the small businesses that banked with American express, and act as an opportunity for these small businesses to promote themselves and attract customers at the start of the holiday shopping season.
Small business Saturday was an amazing success and was quickly adopted by countless small businesses around the country as a way to bring business back to main street and the local community.
The national holiday has also been recognized by many organisations, including the SBA (small business administration) and even Congress.
As a way to increase the “awareness of the value of locally owned small businesses”, the Senate recognized the first Saturday after thanksgiving as small business Saturday in 2011 every year. To be commended by the Senate really highlighted the importance of this day.
As of current, small businesses around the country bring awareness to small business Saturday by huge marketing campaigns, endless promotion and endless networking.
Spreading the word of small business day has such a positive effect on local communities, that it has been adopted nationwide with open arms. Unlike the chaos and madness of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Small business Saturday is always regarded in good stead.
Small business Saturday gains momentum year on year as business owners and consumers spread the word of the fantastic deals that can be had, and the positive effect that is had on the local economy.
2017 saw around 108 million consumers, shop, wine and dine at their local businesses, and around 70% of the US were aware that the holiday was taking place. 2018 saw similar success and 2019 is set to reach numbers of an all-time high.
Another fantastic statistic conducted by the national federation of independent businesses, showed that nearly half of consumers that shopped on Small business Saturday, visited shops in their local area that they had not visited previously.
Encouraging new custom is incredibly important to the longevity of small businesses.
The preparations that need to take place in order to have a successful small business Saturday can be an incredibly laborious process, but the outcome is well worth the extra efforts.
The additional sales on the day, new customers and the long term benefits contributed to the local community speak for themselves.
Learning and implementing new marketing techniques, producing visual advertisement in-store, on social media and through email can all be daunting, but once you get to grips with the processes, it will become almost like second nature.
The first year taking part in small business Saturday is usually the most difficult.
By taking part in the holiday as a small business, you will actively be a part of the solution. For too long now, giant corporations have been taking customers away from local towns and shifting money away from local economies.
By getting the word out there about the advantages of shopping at local businesses, you will be able to increase your sales both on the day and long term, and in doing so help to pump more money that can be used to improve local services and amenities.
Small business Saturday is a relatively recent holiday, but it has been gaining nationwide momentum so rapidly for good reason.
The effects that the holiday has on small business, the local community and consumers shopping habits can only be rooted in positivity.
There are a few practices that you as a small business owner, can use in order to make the most out of small business Saturday. These include:
By participating in small business Saturday, you are helping the local community and economy massively by bringing business back to main street.
