National Small Business Week usually happens the first week of May each year, as proclaimed each year by the President and promoted by the Small Business Administration. This year’s Coronavirus pandemic has caused the celebration to be postponed, but we can still celebrate and support small businesses in our communities. Now more than ever small businesses need us.
How to Support Small Businesses Right Now
Though the official recognition of National Small Business Week has been postponed, we can still celebrate small businesses by giving them support right now. Here are some ways you can help.
1. Prepay Your Next Service
By now we could probably all use a haircut. Contact your salon or barbershop to see if you can prepay for your next appointment. Missing your nail salon? Pay for your next mani-pedi now to help them weather this crisis. Purchase a punch pass at a local gym or yoga studio to use when they’re open again.
2. Share the Love on Social Media
Even if your finances are tight, a great (free) way to support local businesses is by showing them love on social media. Share one of their posts, leave them a good review, or make a post on your social media sharing some of your favorite local businesses with your circle of friends.
3. Share an Email
Even though your inbox might be brimming with Coronavirus subject lines, know businesses are scrambling right now to be of service to their customers. You can help small businesses build their brand awareness by forwarding an email campaign to someone you know who may want to buy from them, get a discount, or learn more about their products or services.
4. Order Takeout or Delivery
With convenient online ordering options, curbside pickup, and contactless delivery, the restaurant business is adapting to the current health crisis to provide you with safe dining options. Take a night off from cooking and support a local restaurant.
We at Pineapple Development are doing our part to help support local restaurants in our hometown of St. Petersburg and beyond! We’ve developed a product called Pineapple Pickup, an online ordering platform local restaurants, coffee shops, and cafes are using to reopen their kitchens for contactless pickup and delivery service.
We’ve partnered with Big Sea to bring this product to market which supports great independently owned restaurants like Three Birds Tavern. Our platform offers a lower-cost alternative to other 3rd party delivery/pickup apps. More money stays in these local small businesses and right here in our community.
5. Volunteer
If you have more free time on your hands, you can offer to help small businesses in your community. Maybe they need help with some remote administrative work. Perhaps they just need someone to talk to and hash out ideas. If you have friends who own small businesses, reach out to them and see if there’s a way you can support them.
6. Be Patient
Most small businesses have pivoted their business model drastically in the previous months. This means new systems and processes, longer shipping times, or gaps in customer service. If you don’t hear back from a business right away be patient and know they are doing their best.
7. Go Gift Shopping
Get ahead of the game for the holiday season by purchasing gifts and gift cards from small businesses now. Gift cards are really helpful to small businesses right now, so whether you purchase one for yourself or a loved one, you can help bring revenue to that business. Make a list of everyone you’re shopping for upcoming birthdays, anniversaries, baby showers, weddings, and major holidays.
8. Show Appreciation
Even if you’re not in a financial position to spend any money with small businesses, a few words of encouragement can go a long way. Let them know you’re thankful for their efforts through social media or email.
How 8 Small Businesses Adapt During Coronavirus
We spoke to 8 small eCommerce businesses to see what changes they’re implementing during the coronavirus to adapt to new consumer behaviors.
Nourish and Refine
Q: Tell us about your business.
Nourish and Refine believes in helping women discover the power of self-care through all-natural and conscious wellness products. Our luxurious line of skincare and candles offer women the freedom to take a moment for themselves each and every day. We are proud of our formulations because we source the very best organic and completely natural ingredients. Each product is made with five or fewer ingredients, free from fillers and chemicals. We make it easy for you to feel confident about what you put on your skin and promise your skin will love you for it.
Q: What eCommerce platform do you use for your website?
Q: Do you have any favorite tools, functions, or plug-ins that you use w/ your eCommerce platform?
Q: Have you pivoted your online marketing strategy during coronavirus? If so, which strategies have worked for you?
Yes, focusing on optimizing our website!
We Are Wild
Q: Tell us about your business.
We are Wild is the first clean, all solid complete skincare system designed for everyday recreation. Because active skin deserves solid performance. When Portland values meet Seoul innovations, our formulas are clean, effective, plant-based, cruelty-free, and TSA friendly.
Q: What eCommerce platform do you use for your website?
Q: Have you pivoted your online marketing strategy during coronavirus? If so, which strategies have worked for you?
Yes, we’ve started an online campaign called One for One. All our products have been automatically discounted 30% to encourage purchases. For every purchase, a product is donated to frontline health workers. We have also partnered with local and national organizations and brands who are doing similar work.
Pink Moon
Q: Tell us about your business.
Pink Moon is a modern retail, well care, and community oasis created by women, for women — in every life stage. Every woman has different self-care needs, and those needs will change as her life does. We embrace women, from every walk of life and every life stage, and help them navigate their ever-changing relationship with self-care.
Q: What eCommerce platform do you use for your website?
Squarespace, soon switching to Shopify
Q: Have you pivoted your online marketing strategy during coronavirus? If so, which strategies have worked for you?
Yes, building a digital community and doing interactive Instagram stories.
Moonlit Skincare
Q: Tell us about your business.
Moonlit Skincare is dedicated to overnight skincare and sleep wellness. Since 2017, Moonlit has been praised by Refinery29, WWD, VOGUE, Buzzfeed, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and listed as CEW’s “Indie Brands to Watch.” Find these beauty sleep treats at 50+ retailers, including Urban Outfitters and Lou and Grey.
Q: What eCommerce platform do you use for your website?
Shopify
Q: Do you have any favorite tools, functions, or plug-ins that you use w/ your eCommerce platform?
AmazonPay, Tidio chat bot, and Sezzle/Afterpay a buy now, pay later app.
Q: Have you pivoted your online marketing strategy during coronavirus? If so, which strategies have worked for you?
Doubling down on digital ads.
Bad Apple Produce
Q: Tell us about your business.
Bad Apple Produce is a 100% woman-owned grocery delivery service with a mission to reduce food waste. Every week, we source food at risk of going uneaten from our network of growers and wholesalers within 150 miles of New York City. Typically, we buy excess supply or high-quality food that doesn’t meet retail supermarkets’ strict aesthetic requirements: for example, apples that are the wrong size, or peppers that are halfway between green and red. Our customers can pick from over 50 items which are delivered directly to their homes at up to a 50% discount to retail prices.
Q: What eCommerce platform do you use for your website?
Q: Have you pivoted your online marketing strategy during coronavirus? If so, which strategies have worked for you?
We’ve pivoted away from overly promotional marketing (Example: get cheap grocery delivery during coronavirus!) toward showing potential customers the value of our service by highlighting new recipes, home cooking, etc.
Tom Foolery
Q: Tell us about your business.
Tom Foolery started with the simple idea of creating jumpsuits that allow women to use the ladies’ room without sitting in a drafty stall clutching your naked chest with your jumpsuit around your ankles while frantically tracking passers-by in the crack next to the door. Tom Foolery jumpsuits are made locally and under fair conditions from responsibly-sourced eucalyptus. We have partnered with a sewing college in Kenya offering girls the opportunity for independence through starting their own business. We are working on establishing a sewing shop in Kenya to employ graduates of the program.
Q: What eCommerce platform do you use for your website?
Squarespace
Q: Do you have any favorite tools, functions, or plug-ins that you use w/ your eCommerce platform?
Squarespace recently added email marketing to its platform which has simplified campaigns greatly and improved communication with our customers.
Q: Have you pivoted your online marketing strategy during coronavirus? If so, which strategies have worked for you?
Yes! We have lowered product prices, started donating a percentage of the proceeds to our partner sewing college in Kenya, and began selling and donating face masks. We are placing an emphasis on building customer relations during this period — cultivating trust and authenticity through open communication channels.
Signature Lacrosse
Q: Tell us about your business.
Our mission is to revolutionize the landscape of lacrosse by dynamically propelling the progression of the equipment, the athletes, and the experience of the sport. We do this through problem-solving products that move sports forward! Our values are communication, leadership, integrity, passion, performance. Our vision is to build the most trusted brand and make sports more accessible.
Q: What eCommerce platform do you use for your website?
Shopify
Q: Do you have any favorite tools, functions, or plug-ins that you use w/ your eCommerce platform?
Q: Have you pivoted your online marketing strategy during coronavirus? If so, which strategies have worked for you?
Knickey
Q: Tell us about your business.
Knickey is a certified sustainable underwear brand offering the best basic briefs from organic cotton — by women, for female-identifying humans. Making organic the everyday option through elevated, affordable intimates, Knickey is for the woke woman who seeks comfort, versatility, durability, and certified sustainability. GOTS, Oeko-Tex, and Fair Trade certified to be exact. Because it’s better for your body, your wallet, and our world.
Q: What eCommerce platform do you use for your website?
Shopify
Q: Do you have any favorite tools, functions, or plug-ins that you use w/ your eCommerce platform?
We love Peel for reporting!
Q: Have you pivoted your online marketing strategy during coronavirus? If so, which strategies have worked for you?
We have ramped up social activities and launched a content series call #KeepItComfy where we share inspiring morning routines, tutorials, hacks, tips, and more from our amazing community.
Don’t Wait to Support Small Businesses
Don’t wait until the official start of Small Business Week to show small businesses some love. Let’s work together to help small businesses make it through this crisis! Use some of the tips here to support small businesses, or share this article with a small business owner so that they can see how other businesses are pivoting during this time.