You’re at the mall at 2am fighting over a royal blue blouse with a woman twice your size while balancing two shopping carts full of items you’re not sure you'll ever wear or use. Sound familiar? Every year millions of shoppers partake in Black Friday the infamous day where shops go from red to black in one night of intense sales, discounts and promotions. But as our shopping trends evolve so do our options.
In 2005, Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving) was born with the intension to increase sales online. Today the idea of ecommerce needing a boost may sound odd as online sales have only increased exponentially but in the early 2000’s shopper were still hesitant to give their credit card information online. Cyber Monday went from $610 million in transactions to a record of $1,465 billion dollars in 2012.
So how do small businesses come into the picture?
Well, in 2010 American Express launched Small Business Saturday; a day dedicated to supporting small businesses across the country. With a growing popularity to shop local and support community, Small Business Saturday, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, is giving back to the little guys.
American Express offers free marketing tools to help small businesses get the word out and incentives to get card members shopping local. They have also paired with sponsors like FedEx Office, Foursquare and Twitter who will all be offering different promotions and sales to get people out and about.
But with three days of back to back promotions -Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday- is the competition becoming too great? Last year, a record of 78% of shoppers reported they found better deals on Cyber Monday with a drastic reduction on the amount of shoppers present on Black Friday. In the midst of all of this can small businesses, who often can’t afford to offer 60-80% reductions on their products, even compete?
Well, it looks like the winners this holiday season might not be only retailers as small business owners are finding creative ways to attract shoppers to buy local.
Leo Kremer, Co-owner of Dos Toros Taqueria in New York City, is co-promoting with other local vendors to attract shoppers. Royal Razor, a barber shop in downtown Baltimore, is promoting itself through social media and video content. And Pure Detroit, an apparel company in Detroit, MI, is offering discounts to customers who present receipts from other local businesses.
The competition might be steep, but the incentive of knowing that the money shoppers are spending is staying within their communities seems to be winning one shopper over at a time
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