Using Small Business Saturday® to Build Customer Relationships and Deliver Recurring Sales

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Your small business is more than a passion, it’s a pulse – a vital force that fosters deep human connections in your community. And if you’ve ever participated in Small Business Saturday®, you’ve felt the impacts of these connections in full force. Not only is this once-a-year event a chance to strengthen bonds with fellow small-business owners, but it’s also an invaluable opportunity to forge relationships with new customers – ones that can help transform your revenue year-round.

To gain the biggest benefit from Small Business Saturday, it’s time to shift how you approach the day. Instead of viewing this event as a marketing tool or one big sale, consider it a launchpad for a Shop Small® strategy that earns your business a lasting place in your community’s heart. The following seasonal promotions strategies can help you boost customer loyalty and your bottom line.

Curate Your Small-Business Connections

Referrals from existing customers are the lifeblood of any business, but you could be overlooking a source of attracting new customers that may pay dividends in all seasons: other small businesses. And while there’s an inarguable benefit to building relationships with a wide array of small businesses in your community, you can help maximize those benefits by focusing on synergy.

Synergistic businesses can benefit from one another’s customers. For instance, a juice bar could benefit from the personal training studio next door. A local grocery store and a shop selling a fun array of reusable totes could be a match made in heaven. These community-based relationships are as much about individual success as they are about shared prosperity.

Making it work for your business: Try crafting a short list of synergistic businesses that make referring customers back and forth a breeze.

Once you’ve made your shortlist, meet with the other business owner to discuss how the connection makes sense and the referral perks you can offer one another’s customers. Discounts, access to special sales, and other unique perks can help keep customers flowing back and forth. As an added bonus, you could develop co-marketing strategies with your business partners to cultivate your shared customer base and keep customers shopping small on Small Business Saturday and beyond.

Leverage the Power of a Loyalty Program 

If you’re used to hosting a stellar sale each year on Small Business Saturday, you can use it to encourage customers to Shop Small all year with a loyalty program. This strategy has served Jennifer Johnson, owner of Naples, Florida-based True Fashionistas, a brick-and-mortar resale shop offering everything from clothing to furniture and home decor.

“We love to do gifts-with-purchase to show appreciation to our customers for shopping small." —Katie Sarna, founder, Santa Cruz Fungi 

A few years ago, Johnson launched a customer loyalty program on Small Business Saturday that awards customers points for each purchase and allows them to redeem points for future discounts. Not only was the program a smashing success on the big day itself, but Johnson made it part of her store’s cornerstone marketing strategy.

“We have now been able to translate that same program and integrate it into our online platform so our online customers can enjoy the same benefit,” says Johnson. “This program alone has increased sales for us by at least 25%.”

Making it work for your business: Launch a high-benefit program with minimal effort.

Small-business owners can have multiple turnkey loyalty program options that seamlessly integrate with their point of sale (POS) systems. POS platforms can help you make every purchase count for your customers – even when they shop online. These platforms also make it easy to offer program members access to exclusive sales on Small Business Saturday and throughout the year. And if you’re worried about a loyalty program chipping away at your margins, think again.

“Many businesses, especially small businesses, may worry that having a loyalty program will teach their customers to wait for a sale, but I find that not to be the case,” Johnson says. She notes that her program entices customers to spend – and in some cases, spend more – because they know they can save some extra cash, even in the already-discounted resale and consignment world.

Energize Your Customer Experience

Small Business Saturday is a day of discovery for your community. To help your business win new customers and delight them 24/7/365, think of ways to embrace that spirit of discovery year-round. This is exactly how Katie Sarna, founder of California-based Santa Cruz Fungi, keeps customers coming back when they indulge in one of her company’s superfood popsicles that are made with mushrooms.

“We love to do gifts-with-purchase to show appreciation to our customers for shopping small,” Sarna says. These gifts help customers discover new products, flavors, and brand-exclusive experiences that keep them coming back for more long after the sun has set on the year’s Small Business Saturday.   

Making it work for your business: Consider using gifts-with-purchase to help keep new customers engaged.

A gift-with-purchase strategy isn’t just a powerful way to thank customers who choose to shop with you on the big day. These point-of-sale perks can also help you build deeper relationships with your customers and keep sales flowing throughout the year. Santa Cruz Fungi uses Small Business Saturday and a gift-with-purchase strategy to welcome new customers. From there, it leverages email and social marketing to keep customers coming back for more than just its frozen treats.

For starters, the company hosts a series of popular in-person mushroom classes. Existing customers get first dibs when sign-ups open. The brand also uses a built-in calendar on its website to let customers know where they’ll be selling week-to-week. Finally, every customer interaction is an opportunity to reinforce how this nano-business invests in the Shop Small ethos: Their ingredients are locally sourced and, when not, ethically sourced from global partners committed to ensuring living wages for workers and sustainable farming practices – all of which reinvest in their respective local communities.

Strengthening Your Business Starts Today

The real beauty of Small Business Saturday is its ability to help small businesses in every community connect with customers on a deeper, more lasting level. Using strategies like the ones above can help your business attract new customers, reward them for shopping small, and keep them coming back for more. There’s no better day than today to build systems that strengthen your relationships with customers and other local business owners so that everyone enjoys the power of shopping small throughout the year.

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