Small Business Saturday spend grows 15% this year

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Dec 9, 2016

UK customers spent an estimated £717 million with small businesses during Small Business Saturday on 3 December, an increase of 15% on last year when the estimated spend was £623 million.

And the event seems to be resonating with UK shoppers who posted over 130,000 tweets around Small Business Saturday, making it Twitter’s top trending topic in Britain on the day.

The campaign, run by Small is Big CIC and supported by American Express, encourages consumers to ‘shop local’ and support small businesses in their communities. It comes as the independent fashion rertail sector struggles to compete with multinational chains.

Recent data from PwC showed 15 stores across all sectors closing down each day in Britain with fashion shops in particular struggling. 206 of them closed in the first half of the year with only 119 new stores opening

According to an American Express-commissioned survey undertaken in the 36 hours following Small Business Saturday, 57% of consumers who were aware of the day said they spent more than usual.

Michelle Ovens, campaign director of the shopping event, said: “In its fourth year, [it] has  again delivered a sustained increase in spending with Britain’s small independent businesses. To see the spend on Small Business Saturday reach £249 million more this year than on the first Saturday in 2013, an increase of 53%, is fantastic and confirms the positive stories we are hearing from small businesses in communities across the UK."