Small Business Saturday has only been around for a few years, but it seems that more Americans are taking to it every holiday season. This year, there was even more success than last year in this regard, and many experts believe that trend will continue.
Nationwide, it seems more than 88 million consumers shopped at local independent companies on Small Business Saturday, an increase of 14.9 percent from just a year earlier, according to this year’s Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey from the National Federation of Independent Business and American Express. Further, the typical person who shopped at such a company spent an average of $162, though that number was down 11.5 percent. However, with the added number of actual shoppers, small businesses actually made more this year than they did last year.
In fact, the poll also found that about 2 in every 3 Americans are now aware of the Small Business Saturday shopping event, and that these people ended up spending a combined total of $14.3 billion with both independent retailers and restaurants on that day, the report said. That was up 2.1 percent from $14 billion a year earlier.
“Once again, Small Business Saturday proved to be a bright spot over the first official holiday shopping weekend,” said Denise Pickett, president of American Express OPEN. “Small businesses are critical to the stability of our local communities and growth of our national economy. We are confident that the broad national support for these businesses will continue well beyond Nov. 29.”
A growing phenomenon
Nationwide, 40 state governments issued official proclamations stating the governments’ support for Small Business Saturday, and the U.S. Senate passed legislation to officially designate Nov. 29 as being Small Business Saturday by a unanimous vote, the report said. Further, 450 individual cities likewise backed the initiative, representing localities in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Meanwhile, consumers and companies alike sent out more than 126,000 tweets to support the day, up 10 percent from a year prior.
Companies that want to better prepare themselves for the event next year might want to consider the ways in which cutting their small business insurance costs might help them in this regard. For instance, if they can find more affordable liability insurance coverage, that might free up thousands of dollars every year which they can then devote to other aspects of their companies’ overall health.
