Small Business Saturday shopping up 15%
New York -Across the country, there was strong support for local businesses on Small Business Saturday, with shopping up 14.9% from last year, according to the results from the Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey, released today by American Express and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).
According to the survey, the average person who shopped on Small Business Saturday spent $162, down 11.5% from the previous year. But overall spending was boosted by strong awareness and the sheer volume of shoppers supporting their local businesses on the day.
“Once again, Small Business Saturday proved to be a bright spot over the first official holiday shopping weekend,” said Denise Pickett, president, American Express OPEN. “Small businesses are critical to the stability of our local communities and growth of our national economy. We are confident that the broad national support for these businesses will continue well beyond November 29th.”
On Nov 29 alone, more than 126,000 tweets were sent in support of the initiative, many using the hashtags #SmallBizSat and #ShopSmall, a 10% increase from the previous year; those Tweets ranged from consumers spreading the word about the national initiative to business owners promoting offers that they created specifically for the day.