Small Business Saturday Rakes in $20B: Here’s How to Prepare

Small Business Saturday is a great way to support local business, including your own. You can thank American Express for the holiday, because they started it in Massachusetts in 2010 as a way to emphasize local shopping, small businesses, and reducing a person’s carbon footprint. Observed on November 30 in the US this year, Small Business Saturday is nestled right between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which means that you have a little under two weeks to prepare for one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year.

That weekend is just the start of the holiday shopping season. Make sure your shop is ready, your social media is scheduled, and that your team is prepared for everything that may come this upcoming holiday shopping weekend, and afterwards. Our guide will help your team prepare, while still supporting other local businesses. 

Get festive

The holiday season officially began at the start of November, and people are already excited about Thanksgiving and looking forward to Christmas. Consider decorating the store with Christmas lights, fake snow, and more. For affordable Christmas décor, check local thrift stores as well as Facebook Marketplace to find great deals on barely used items. Consider creating easy-to-make DIY décor like this cookie cutter wreath, coffee-filter garland, giant Christmas lights, or chalked buckets. You can also bring in unsentimental and inexpensive Christmas-day décor from your own house like a plate with cookies for Santa or a few stockings to hang up; just remember to take them back home before Christmas day. It might be a good idea to start sharing some holiday themed posts on your company’s Facebook page just to get customers into the spirit, and even playing soft Christmas music around the store. It can cost relatively nothing to spread some simple holiday cheer.

Entice customers to shop at your store with deals and coupons only good for the weekend of Small Business Saturday.

You do not have to have a whole BOGO (buy one get one) offer, but consider a buy three get one offer or even 20% off certain products. Keep your discounts eye-catching and competitive without threatening your company’s profit. Once you have settled on a discount, you can get the word out by placing a sign on the front of your store, reminding clients about the upcoming sale in person, sharing a few social media posts to hype up the discounts, and even sending out an email a few days before.

If you need free stock images for your social media posts or in-store posters, you can find hundreds of free stock images at Unsplash, or you can use these free customizable templates provided by American Express. Another idea is to partner up with surrounding small businesses and find a way to get the word out about the shopping holiday. Create an adorable flyer that lists a group of neighboring stores that are all participating with small weekend sales, and pass them out a week or two before Small Business Saturday. This partnership can help all of your stores save money by splitting up the cost of printing the flyers. Remember to share the flyer on social media as well, and encourage the other stores to share it too. If you decide to have a holiday party at your store that Saturday, consider buying cookies from a local bakery or coffee from a local coffee shop and putting them out for customers to enjoy for free. You can support local business by putting a sign next to the food to say where they were from.

Stock up on products to make sure you are prepared for them to fly off the shelves.

You will want to have enough product to last the shopping holiday weekend and make it until your next shipment. The last thing you want to do is run out of product during the holiday shopping