Survey: Independent Retailers Increasing Small Business Saturday Promotions

With five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, many small business owners say they’ll be ramping up efforts to get customers into stores during the holiday shopping season. According to the second annual Small Business Saturday Insights Survey, recently released by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) and American Express, more independent retailers plan to start their promotional activity earlier than last year.

For many of the small business owners who are aware of Small Business Saturday, the day will be a part of their promotional calendar. Of those small business owners incorporating Small Business Saturday into their holiday plans, 70 percent say Small Business Saturday will be helpful in attracting new customers.

According to the survey, an increasing number of independent retailers are investing more money into promoting Small Business Saturday and providing additional incentives to reach customers. The number of business owners who say they’ll rely primarily on paid advertising (TV, radio and newspaper) to promote Small Business Saturday has doubled (18 percent vs. 9 percent in 2012), while discounts continue to be the top incentive used to encourage consumers to shop at a small business the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but more business owners are planning to reward customers by offering them a free gift with purchase (33 percent, up from 20 percent in 2012).

Small Business Saturday, now in its fourth year, falls between Black Friday and Cyber Monday and serves as the traditional kick off to the holiday season for independent retailers and restaurateurs.

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