Around 88 million consumers “shopped small” on last year’s Small Business Saturday (SBS), up 14.9 percent from 2013.  U.S. consumers spent $14.3 billion with independent retailer and restaurants on SBS, up 2.1 percent from $14 billion the previous year (SBS  and  the National Federation of Independent Business  changed research vendors in 2014, and the new methodology  has been adjusted to include more participants and a spending extrapolation based on average consumer expenditure).

American Express and the U.S. Small Business Administration are offering online marketing tools for the event on their websites, including event guides, printable signage, save-the-date cards, email templates, and Shop Small logos.  American Express also offers brick-and-mortar retailers a kit of tote bags, buttons, balloons, a power and pennant to decorate their stores.  More advice and tips on how to capitalize on Small Business Saturday can be found on the Small Business Saturday Facebook page.

American Express began its "Small Business Saturday" program in 2010, to encourage consumers to "shop small" the day after Black Friday by patronizing small, neighborhood brick-and-mortar merchants, hoping shoppers would shift a larger portion of their purchases to locally-owned  businesses on the busiest shopping weekend of the year.

ComicsPRO is sponsoring a new Local Comic Shop Day event coinciding with Small Business Saturday (see “ComicsPRO's Local Comic Shop Day Exclusives Revealed”).