Small Business Saturday
Coming November 27 is Small Business Saturday, the officially-recognized shopping holiday sponsored by American Express, now in its 12th year. Small Business Saturday is the capstone event for American Express’ now year-long Shop Small movement to support independent small businesses all around the globe.
“This marks the first full year that we made a sustained Shop Small effort year-round, not just for one day,” says Walter Frye, American Express vice president of global brand management.
“We committed more than $200 million, including special offers and incentives, to motivate our customers to get out and Shop Small. And this year, we are introducing new initiatives to help drive more business to small businesses,” he continues.
Bracketed by Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday has had an impressive run bringing more customers out to shop over the nation’s biggest holiday shopping weekend. It even gained Congressional and presidential support in 2011.
With a stated goal of driving $100 billion in reported consumer spending to small businesses on Small Business Saturday from 2021 through 2025, this year’s event and the rest of the season is more critical than ever to keep small businesses afloat in 2022.
Some 78% of the small businesses surveyed said holiday sales will impact their ability to continue in business next year with more than half saying holiday sales need to be better or above average to succeed.
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If consumers do their part – 80% of consumers say they are likely to shop small this holiday season – small businesses will get their wish.
New this year
To give small businesses a holiday kick start, American Express has expanded its Shop Small Studio where merchants can download posters, social media posts, signage and marketing materials to help them attract attention in their communities.
The company is also launching a new grant program in partnership with Main Street America to support underrepresented small businesses and it is working with Showfields to showcase black-owned businesses online over the holidays and in a pop-up shop in Los Angeles.
Google joins the Shop Small Movement
In addition, Google is getting behind the Shop Small movement this year to help small businesses optimize their e-commerce capability and to get their products showcased in Google search results.
“It’s a part of a much bigger effort where we’re partnering with Google to roll out more of their services to our merchants,” Frye explains. “Together, we’re focused on helping small businesses increase their digital footprint and drive more sales to those channels. E-commerce is going to be a really important strategy for these businesses moving forward.”
The two companies have also commissioned local artists in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston to created shoppable murals that will feature over 25 shoppable products available only from local businesses. These IRL murals will be displayed around town and shoppers will be able to use the Google Lens app to shop from their phones.
Shop Small Mural, New York City
Unique products are independent retailers’ ace in the hole
Main Street retailers have long believed, and the latest American Express survey confirms, that offering customers unique products they can’t find elsewhere is their greatest competitive advantage over the big boxes, national retail chains and Amazon.
Some 79% of consumers surveyed agreed that they prefer to seek out small businesses over big retailers for holiday purchases. When they want something special not just as a gift, but anytime throughout the year, independent retailers is where they look.
With all worry about supply chain shortages, independent retailers have an extra advantage this year. Despite 45% of small businesses reporting it takes longer to receive products, only 10% are finding it a struggle to get enough inventory.
However, since specialty retailers’ traditional source to find new products – trade shows – have been disrupted by the pandemic, their supply problem is not so much receiving the items ordered, but finding new unique products to sell that will excite customers.
Window of opportunity
Into the breach comes the online wholesale marketplace Faire.
“We started Faire in 2017 with a simple vision: to build a wholesale marketplace that would help small brands and retailers band together to compete on a more level playing field with Walmart and Amazon,” co-founder and CEO Max Rhodes said.
Faire reports it has sold over 125 million products in the last year. It supports 300,000 retailers access products from over 40,000 brands. Its sales have more than tripled year-over-year, bringing annual sales volume to more than $1 billion in less than five years.
Unique in the wholesale trade, Faire also offers free returns and refunds for a first order from a brand that disappoints the retailer. And as a special boon to specialty retailers, it allows them to search for products that can’t be found on Amazon.
Especially impactful for U.S. specialty retailers is Faire’s expansion into Europe this year. Faire enables U.S. retailers to source rare, never-before seen products from around the world. Likewise, U.S. companies can access global retailers with their wares.
Through October, Faire reports delivering some 100,000 first time orders between North American and European businesses. And it takes friction out of cross-border trading by absorbing the costs of import duties and customs fees.
Faire isn’t letting the grass grow under its feet as it takes advantage of pandemic-driven opportunities for retailers and brands to connect. The company just announced a new $400 million round of Series G Funding, bringing its total valuation to $12.4 billion.
“We believe that Faire will transform the global wholesale market,” said Durable Capital Partners’ Anouk Dey, a new investor in this round.
New traditions
After the nearly two years of life as usual disrupted, not to mention business as usual, everyone’s eager to get back to normal, but most recognize that it won’t be the old normal.
People’s needs and expectations have changed in all quarters of their lives. Those changes call for new traditions. Some two-thirds of consumers surveyed by American Express said they are looking for new places where they can establish new holiday traditions.
American Express is putting its weight behind making small businesses that place, not just for shopping this holiday season, but to make Shop Small a tradition throughout the year. Google is coming along side to empower small businesses’ digital footprint.
And Faire is helping Main Street retailers get off the treadmill of attending multiple trade shows in search of special, unique products that will excite and encourage shoppers to patronize their shops, not to mention saving retailers time, money and wear-and-tear roaming expansive trade-show aisles.
After the doom-and-gloom of the last two years, specialty retailers have reason for optimism this holiday season. Having such powerful partners as American Express, Google and Faire supporting their cause, they should be able to realize more than their share of the 8.5% to 10.5% holiday sales increase that the National Retail Federation is predicting.
