on Small Business Saturday


Sales Surge


Gift retailers cash in on second annual event which spurred an estimated 103 million Americans to shop at independently owned businesses. Beth Mattson-Teig


E


lizabeth Sullivan was ready. In anticipation of Small Business Saturday, November 26,


the co-owner of Lady Ashley Designs in Temple Terrace, FL, had teamed up with her shopping center owner and other tenants to create a “Winter Fest” event at the property. Santa was ready; so were in-store promotions and an infl atable bounce house. Lady Ashley Designs promoted the signifi cance of Small Business Saturday through email blasts and newsletters. The stage was all set for a successful day—and what a success it was! Lady Ashley Designs doubled its store sales on


the Saturday after Thanksgiving from the year prior. In 2010, Lady Ashley Designs hosted a visit with Santa to help draw customers to its store on the holiday weekend. “This year it was much bigger, because we got the landlord involved,” says Elizabeth Sullivan, who co-owns the store with her husband George. The store also tied the national campaign into its own sales promotion, offering a 30 to 50% discount on everything in the store. Independent retailers like Sullivan are grabbing a


bigger piece of consumers’ holiday shopping dollars thanks in large part to the growing popularity of


Small Business Saturday, a national campaign that encourages people to “Shop Small” at local stores on the Saturday after Thanksgiving—one of the busiest shopping days of the year. “This initiative has helped small businesses on so many levels,” says Patricia Norins, publisher of GIFT SHOP magazine and a spokesperson and advisor to Small Business Saturday. Foremost, it trained consumer attention to the importance of shopping small. “When consumers shop small, they are actually helping to boost their local economy,” Norins points out. In 2011, Small Business Saturday spurred a whopping


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GIFT SHOP n Winter 2012


GiftShopMag.com


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