Small Biz Sat Debuts in US to Beat Click Buying and Chain Stores

The American Express’s initiative to aid local small businesses to compete with online and chain stores with the slogan of Small Business Saturday on 27 Nov has shown new direction in sales. To stop e-tailers and chain stores ejecting small local businesses from the market, the American Express offered shoppers $25 cash back if they pre-registered and shopped at small businesses.

In recent years, the Black Friday with heavy discounts and freebies in retail chains and Cyber Monday with similar offerings on e-commerce sites have attracted consumers in scores to put huge pressure on small local businesses, which provided more jobs to locals than by their competitors. Experts observed local small businesses created several jobs and gave fillip to local tax base, which in turn improved local schools, parks, etc. According to the official Small Business Saturday website, over the past two years, small businesses have created more than 65 percent of new jobs.

The official website in support of Small Business Saturday which re-directed to facebook page has already been able to draw support from more than a million people in the first year of its launch.
Moreover, the website also claimed that an economic impact study indicated for every $100 spent - $68 remained from local business in the local economy whereas only $43 remained from chain stores, and much less when it came to e-tailing. So, it states shopping locally is a good way to help reduce the unemployment rate as well as ensuring the welfare of the local community.

As per latest reports, many consumers felt the promotion for Small Business Saturday was very late, and it did not reach out to many consumers who were interested in helping their local businesses as well as to avail the benefits offered by the American Express. Although there was slight improvement in overall sales in local business, it is not known whether it is a reflection of the growth of the economy or the new sales plan as both Black Friday and Cyber Monday recorded stupendous year on year growth.

The National Retail Foundation’s first data release of the biggest shopping weekend of the year revealed 212mn consumers made at least one purchase between Thursday and Sunday, an 8.7 percent increase over the same weekend in 2009. According to digital analytics firm comScore, online sales on Cyber Monday Nov 26 totalled $648mn, a 9 percent gain over 2009, the first day of the week after Thanksgiving weekend becoming 2010’s heaviest online spending day.

By Jose Roy