“Shop Small” Is Not A Sustainable Marketing Strategy

I love to shop small businesses. Many have been able to flourish due to the bull market and excess cash during the pandemic. But now customers are being more selective with where they shop due to inflation and recession. This creates a challenge for small businesses. And many small businesses haven’t done anything to differentiate themselves from bigger retailers through service and/or curation of products to stay alive.

Many of these small businesses are a dime a dozen. I can find the same imported products at any “boutique” across the country or even Target. The products are kitschy (to me) and the customer experience isn’t special.

Plea to Shop Small

The story shared below on Instagram, from a small business, was the inspiration for this post. I hid their account name for privacy. I don’t know anything about their business.

Building a business is hard and survival rates reflect it. Whether the economy is in a bull market (📈) or bear market (📉) it’s tough to build a profitable business and keep it running.

The bull market made it easy to start a business following an industry roadmap and hide flaws in operations. Any charity (loans and excess cash circulating) during the pandemic only helped extend the cash runway. The changing market is revealing those flaws. Over the next year or two, we will see mediocre businesses of all sizes close.

Charity is not a business strategy

Guilt-tripping people to “shop small” is not a sustainable marketing strategy. Customers are not obligated to buy from you or any other small business. It’s a free market where people get to choose where they spend their money. We see that even more now as the economy shifts, people are selective with where they spend their money.

Instead, take ownership of the situation, assess your strengths and weaknesses, talk to your customers and team to identify opportunities, and pivot where needed. If you’re struggling, here is a list of questions to help you review your business:

• How do and your team you treat your existing customers? Do you treat them as transactions or as community members you know by name? How can you make them feel seen?
• Do you actively seek customer feedback? Are you using feedback (good and bad) to make your service better and find opportunities to create new solutions?
• Do people know about your business? How do your existing customers know about you? Do you create opportunities for them to talk about you to their friends and family? Are customers part of your story?
• What can you do (service) differently from big business?
• Where can you reduce overhead costs? Are there areas where you’re spending money and not seeing a return?

Building something that lasts takes continuous work and refinement. You are capable. Go serve and lead with excellence!