The weekend after the Thanksgiving holiday (“Black Friday” onward) remains one of the busiest shopping periods in the U.S. annually. Brick-and-mortar locations don’t see the same level of traffic that they used to during the era of feral early-morning Black Friday shoppers, but the shopping continues – in many cases, with online distributors.
Data consultants Bain & Company estimate that “from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, U.S. retail sales could reach a record-breaking $75 billion.” Wow.
“Black Friday” has existed for some time, originally referring to an 1869 financial crisis and the ensuing sales to take businesses out of the “red” and into the “black.” The day began to evolve in the 1950s to refer to shopping in urban centers the day after Thanksgiving. By the early ‘60s the term had begun to stick. Some also referred to it as “Big Friday,” according to history.com.
“Cyber Monday” arrived in the public lexicon in 2005, coined by the National Retail Federation in 2005 when they noticed that people would continue their holiday shopping online while at work on the Monday after Thanksgiving, “because, at that time, many people had a faster internet connection at work than at home.”
Small Business Saturday is largely a new addition to the holiday weekend. “In 2010, in an effort to support local small businesses – many of whom were hurting during the economic recession – American Express launched Small Business Saturday to help drive more holiday shopping to small businesses. One year after the launch, local officials across the nation began to notice and promote the day,” explained the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “In 2011, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution in support of Small Business Saturday and by 2012 officials in all 50 states began to participate – and they have every year since. The day has grown into an annual holiday shopping tradition.”
The Chamber of Commerce has a few more statistics to share: “There are 33.2 million small businesses in the U.S. and they make up 99% of all businesses. For the past 20 years, small businesses have accounted for roughly 40% of the United States’ gross domestic output (GDP), which equates to trillions of dollars of economic activity.”
This weekend in the spotlight is a great time to support small business – especially in the shadow of an ever-growing, monopolistic online retail industry.
Your key contribution as a holiday shopper is simply showing up for retailers in your area, but if you are a small business owner yourself, there are lots of tips and tricks out there to leverage this key selling day into success.
Check out some of the articles below from around the internet for some winning ideas:
The U.S. Small Business Administration: Small Business Saturday
Square: 10 Tips to Prepare for Small Business Saturday in 2024
by Andy Haman
