Three Easy Ways to Reward Your Customers for Shopping on Small Business Saturday

Sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday encourages shoppers to show their local retailers a little bit of love. While independent store owners can’t always offer the same deep discount and door crasher incentives that their big box brethren advertise for Black Friday, here are a few small ways to show customers that you really appreciate their support this Saturday

 1.  Discounts are de rigueur on in the Post-Thanksgiving shopping. But instead of slapping on a 10% discount on everything in-store (something you can easily do by creating a one-time discount code in Lightspeed Retail), give your loyal Facebook, Instagram and Twitter followers something special. On Saturday morning or Friday night, post a message on your social channels offering an extra 20% off all sale items for shoppers who mention the “secret password” at checkout on Small Business Saturday.

2.  Shopping at a big box store on Black Friday is definitely an experience, but it’s not always a good one. Remind your customers why shopping small is. Head over to the next-door coffee shop and pick up a bunch of gift certificates to give out to your clients (better yet, ask the owner if he’d be willing to offer free coffee to anyone who has purchased something in your store that day). Or, give them a real taste of the neighbourhood with some pastries from your favourite local bakery. The sweet treat is sure to keep them lingering longer.

3.  Small Business Saturday is the perfect time to build your customer database; follow-up each purchase on that day with a thank you email. Make it heartfelt but keep it snappy and don’t forget, ‘tis the giving season, so offer them them a little something like free shipping off all holiday shopping. Yes, it will cost you something in the short run but it might also encourage shoppers who wouldn’t normally visit your online store to give it a whirl.