Small Business Saturday comes every year, following the Thanksgiving holiday. The idea is that SMBs should get a piece of the action when it comes to the elevated consumerism that surrounds Black Friday Cyber Monday and any other shopping holidays that emerge (TikTok Tuesday, anyone?)
To elevate this tradition, American Express this year is adding a twist. Its “Door to Shop Small” campaign will place QR codes on public installations throughout Chicago, LA, and New York. When consumers scan those codes, they can access shoppable content from local merchants and get rewards in return.
Those rewards are positioned as an incentive for shoppers to engage, and include $5 statement credits for purchases of $50 or more. Meanwhile, participating merchants from the above cities include Cadence, Courant, Paper Shoot Camera, Gray Malin, Little Words Project, and Cut + Clarity.
Walk the Walk
Beyond financial incentive, American Express hopes to differentiate this campaign with an additional immersive kick. Specifically, the “shoppable” content noted above includes 3D models that shoppers can access to gain dimensional understanding of products, such as color and texture variants.
To further walk the walk, Amex underscores that it supports SMBs beyond just the once-per-year shopping holiday. For example, its Shop Small program operates year-round and includes various promotions, as well as informational resources to motivate consumers to patronize their local stores.
In fact, part of that broader effort was on display in a recent report released by Amex. Entitled 2023 American Express Shop Small Impact Study, it highlights aggregate data around SMBs’ economic impact, as well as their current health. Here are a few quick highlights from the study:
- 88 percent of small business owners said that they needed more customer support due primarily to current economic conditions.
- 55 percent expect that Small Business Saturday will contribute meaningfully to their 2023 holiday sales.
- On the consumer side, 78 percent said they will support local shops this holiday season, which are essential entities for community wellbeing.
Blue Door Special
Amex also projects that its payment rails will execute $100 billion in consumer spending with SMBs between 2021 and 2025. And its Small Business Saturday initiatives cumulatively have generated $184 billion in consumer spending with SMBs. This year will mark the fourteenth Small Business Saturday.
So if you’re in any of those cities on Saturday look out for physical blue door frame installations. They’ll be placed in high-traffic areas such as Chicago’s Magnificent Mile (Pioneer Court), Los Angeles’ Westfield Century City, and New York City’s Gansevoort Plaza in the Meat Packing District.
