• Survey
  • Book Becky to speak
  • The book: Small Town Rules
  • Shop Local video
  • SaveYour.Town

Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource

A row of small town shops
  • Front Page
  • Latest stories
  • About
  • Guided Tour
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • RSS

Holiday shopping campaigns besides “Shop Small”

By Becky McCray

Small Business Saturday and its Shop Small slogan get a lot of attention, but they aren’t the only holiday shopping project small town businesses can join for more buzz this season.

Shift Your Shopping

Shopping bag full of gifts says, "Shift Your Shopping." Shift Your Shopping is a theme you can adopt for any local shopping campaign. The emphasis is on shifting more of your shopping dollars to local stores. You can download graphics and logos to use in your local campaign. You aren’t restricted to any specific days or weeks, so you can use the theme all season.

Shift Your Shopping is a cooperative effort spearheaded by our friends at the AMIBA – American Independent Business Alliance. The website has been only partially updated for 2014, but don’t let that stop you. You can still use the graphics, logos and ideas you’ll find at the site.

  • Print the downloadable poster for your store.
  • Use the Shift Your Shopping Logo in your ads and online.
  • Put the audio PSAs on your local radio station. (You can pay the station and make them ads.)
  • Get your chamber or other local organization to add the logo to their campaign.
  • Chamber not gonna happen? Grab one other local business owner, and make a mini-campaign together.

Shop For Good

Shop for GoodAn offshoot from the Shift Your Shopping project is called Shop For Good. Participating merchants agree to donate a portion of sales on days they choose, but instead of it all going to one cause, each customer can designate a local cause to benefit. Actor Kevin Bacon is a big supporter and created fun media you can customize for your business, like campy videos. Bacon’s participation is drawing other celebrities to participate also.

It’s a fun way to add a cause component to shopping and to keep more of that benefit local.

UPDATE 11-18: Simplify the Holidays

Simplify the Holidays is not a shopping campaign. It’s more of an anti-shopping campaign, but I think it is a natural fit for small towns. Get the emphasis off of buying more stuff at major national retailers, and put more emphasis on family and community. That benefits locally-owned stores that are more likely to supply the things you need as a family. And we all benefit when our small towns build a stronger sense of community.

Simplify the Holidays

UPDATE 11-19: Shop the Neighbourhood

Thanks to my friend Glenda Watson-Hyatt for pointing out this one. Shop the Neighbourhood is a Canada-based event that seems to coincide with Small Business Saturday in the US, so it’s November 29 this year. The main sponsor seems to be Yellow Pages, and it seems to be drawing wide support.
New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.

 

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
  • Downtown is your town’s core: How to make your case - February 22, 2021
  • Zoom Towns: attracting and supporting remote workers in rural small towns - December 10, 2020
  • In an economic crisis, spend your brainpower before your dollars - November 25, 2020
  • Video: How to fill empty car dealership buildings for the holidays - November 6, 2020
  • How has 2020 changed the challenges rural small towns face? Tell us here - October 20, 2020
  • The Idea Friendly Method to surviving a business crisis - October 6, 2020
  • Join me for the Rural Renewal Symposium online Oct 13 - September 26, 2020
  • Cheap placemaking idea: instant murals - September 11, 2020
  • Refilling the rural business pipeline - July 7, 2020
  • Huge vacant buildings: grants to renovate? - June 9, 2020

November 17, 2014 Filed Under: economic development, entrepreneurship, marketing, shop local Tagged With: retail

Wondering what is and is not allowed in the comments?
Or how to get a nifty photo beside your name?
Check our commenting policy.
Use your real name, not a business name.


Don't see the comment form?
Comments are automatically closed on older posts, but you can send me your comment via this contact form and I'll add it manually for you. Thanks!

Howdy!

Glad you dropped in to the rural and small town business blog, established in 2006.

We want you to feel at home, so please take our guided tour.

Meet our authors on the About page.

Have something to say? You can give us a holler on the contact form.

If you would like permission to re-use an article you've read here, please make a Reprint Request.

Want to search our past articles? Catch up with the latest stories? Browse through the categories? All the good stuff is on the Front Page.

Shop Local

Buy local buttonReady to set up a shop local campaign in your small town? You'll need a guide who understands how we're different and what really works: Shop Local Campaigns for Small Towns.

Best of Small Biz Survival

What is holding us back? Why does every project take so long in small towns?

How any business can be part of downtown events by going mobile

Concert-goers talking and enjoying the evening in downtown Webster City, Iowa.

Why do people say there’s nothing to do here then not come to our concerts?

Retailers: Fill all empty space, floor to ceiling

More of the best of Small Biz Survival

Copyright © 2021 Becky McCray
Front Page · Log in