With the holidays just around the corner, many of us have started our holiday shopping, or at least begun contemplating the gifts we want to share with the important people in our lives.
While large chain stores make the shopping process convenient and affordable, there are even more benefits to turning to small business for your holiday gifting needs. From enhanced customer service to supporting your community and local economy, here’s why you should be shopping small business this holiday season.
Supporting Your Community
Shopping small business is BIG for the community. First off, it helps provide jobs for your community. It also ensures that your dollars stay in your local economy, rather than being siphoned off to corporate entities. It’s estimated that small businesses return three times as much money per dollar back to the local community than their chain counterparts.
Highly Personalized Customer Service
Small businesses can offer an enjoyable shopping experience that allows time for more thoughtful browsing and exploring. Also, small-business employees often have more knowledge of the products and services they’re selling.
Small business offers a more personalized experience, as well. Many small business owners fill every role in their business, including customer service. Without the layers of corporate policy, they can bend their own rules. Good ones will bend over backward for every customer, as every customer matters when you’re a small business.
HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT SMALL BUSINESS
As you set out to battle the holiday shopping crowds and land online deals (hello, Black Friday and Cyber Monday), consider spending a little more time to find and support independent local retailers and ecommerce stores. It’s no surprise that the best way to support small businesses is to buy their goods and services. But you don’t always have to spend cash in order to show your support. Here’s how you can help the hardworking members of your community this holiday season and every other day of the year.
Supporting Small Business Saturday
This annual holiday was created to #ShopSmall, to show support of small, independent businesses and call attention to the valuable contributions they make to their communities and the economy. Swing by or click to your favorite small business to support and celebrate all that they do.
Spread the word
Don’t just shop local—tell your family and friends, too. You can easily support other small, local businesses by spreading the word about them to your friends and family. Word-of-mouth is still the best form of marketing!
Engage with small businesses on social media
Each time you post about a local business or share its posts, you’re helping to bolster its social media presence, which can lead to more followers, likes, shares, and—most important—sales for that company. Share their posts, like their posts, tag a friend, comment on something, post a picture, or leave a positive review.
Attend events/markets/pop ups hosted in your neighborhood
Farmers markets, street fairs, and fundraising events all offer the opportunity to connect with local vendors and learn more about the businesses in your area. Many businesses also hold events of their own. For instance, some local bookstores host book readings and workshops, while many neighborhood coffee shops host open-mic nights.
Review your experience
Reviews are extremely important, but we’re not asking people to just give a good review because the business is locally owned. Give them a shout-out.
When you decide to shop small but maybe don't know where to begin, finding a local business that fits your needs is often only a google search away. Many city governments provide lists of small businesses on official websites, and alternatively, you can often search your city and "small business directory."
Source: https://www.gachitea.com/blogs/news/why-you-should-shop-small-business-this-holiday-season and https://www.popsugar.com/smart-living/why-you-should-shop-small-businesses-this-holiday-season-47979181 and https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/support-small-business-holiday/