Started by the credit card industry in 2010, Small Business Saturday takes place the day after Black Friday. The impetus behind this relatively new shopping holiday was the fact that American consumers still love their local neighborhood shops and will often choose to go shopping in them over the big box stores or even going online.
A neighborhood hardware store or boutique gift shop; a local greengrocer or independent bookstore — these are the backbone of the small business community, where the owner/operators know each customer’s name and can spend plenty of time with each person who comes into their store to help them select just the right item for the Holidays. It’s an old-fashioned dream that many Americans still hold onto. Many consumers use cash from payday loan direct lenders to facilitate the increased spending. And Small Business Saturday takes advantage of that nostalgia to help the independent business person create customer interest and boost sales.
Here’s how to make Saturday, November 25, 2017, a banner day for your small business sales:
Let everyone know online
Use every single bit of social media you can to alert your customers and prospective customers that your business intends to honor Small Business Saturday with some blow out sales and outstanding bargains. Even if you haven’t been doing very much with online customer contact, you can still spread the word using Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, and so on. If you haven’t started accounts on some of these golden venues, then now’s the time to do it!
Create an online coupon that can be printed out and is good for a ten percent discount on any item of twenty dollars at your store. You’ll be surprised how much traffic online and in your store this can create.
Hire on extra staff
Many major media outlets will be touting Small Business Saturday as a legitimate news story, so you’re getting free publicity for the event and should prepare for extra shoppers to be stopping by. This would be a good time to bring on some extra help, so that no potential customer ever has to wait, even for a second, when they set foot in your store. Remember, one of the main attractions of a niche business is that service is always personal, friendly, and immediate.
Open early, close late
Black Friday has whipped consumers into shape for their Holiday Shopping Frenzy — now you get to take advantage of the Morning After, when consumers are still hungering for that little something that they couldn’t find at the store or online. So throw open the doors before the sun is up and keep ‘em open until long after the sun has set. You only get this kind of an opportunity once a year — so take full advantage of it!
Cross promotion
Work with other neighborhood businesses in your area to cross promote merchandise. For example, it you run a pottery store, talk to the local florist about working in tandem on special discounts on vases for the flowers bought at his or her shop. You can also cross promote each other’s merchandise by holding drawings where you give away not your own merchandise, but something from a different business — for instance, have your hardware store hold a drawing to give away a set of bath salts from the local beauty salon, and they, in turn, can hold a drawing on Small Business Saturday, to give away a tool belt from your hardware store. It’s a win-win proposition.
