During this challenging time for businesses all around the world and the effects that lockdown and social distancing measures have had, it’s more important than ever to think about how we as a community can support small businesses, from the comfort of our homes. We’re going to be listing 8 ways you can support small businesses from your couch that also won’t break the bank.
1. Shop Local (Online)
Even though we’re on lockdown you will still be able to shop locally by opting to shop via their websites. Opting to shop with your local greengrocers or butchers online and using their delivery service, if they offer one, means that they’re able to keep their business going whilst also serving the needs of their community.
Small businesses make up the majority of the UK’s business population (99%) and in turn, bring in around £2.2 trillion in turnover to the UK economy. Small businesses are a huge part of our economic landscape and now it’s more important than ever to support them at this time.
2. Write Recommendations
While we’re all working from home it’s a good time to leave some reviews and recommendations on your favourite independent shops as well as those you use regularly in your local community. This not only helps them with their trust signals to other potential customers but it will also help to boost morale at this time, as well as giving them great social content to share across their channels.
3. Share Favourite Products
One thing businesses can do at this time is work on their sites and build their audience on their social media channels. One way you can help them with this is by liking and sharing their profiles and products on your own social media channels. This helps them get more reach with their posts and increases brand awareness amongst your followers, and may even result in an order or two!
4. Buy Gift Cards
If a business sells services rather than products but you still want to support them, you can always buy gift cards to use at a later date. Not only does this give you something to look forward to but it also helps the business’ cash flow which is one of the top priorities for businesses right now. You could also think about buying a few and gifting them to friends and family too!
5. Find a New Hobby
As we’ll be stuck inside for the foreseeable future and with non-essential businesses closing their doors, now is the perfect time to discover a new hobby. From painting, to learning a musical instrument most businesses are now selling their items online so you’ll be able to get most of the supplies you need. Even if you’re looking at learning a new instrument, for example, there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube for this.
6. Order Takeout
Support your local restaurants by asking if they’re offering a takeout or delivery service. If they are why not treat yourself on Friday nights for example, and try different cuisines in your local area each week.
If they’re not offering takeout or delivery, perhaps they’re offering cooking lessons that you can partake in each week. But help to support them by either purchasing from them or taking part in any online activities they’re doing.
7. Reschedule
If you’ve already had something booked in the calendar for months (like a lot of us) instead of cancelling it, consider rescheduling the event or activity to a later date. This way you still have something to look forward to but the business will still have the cash flow (if you’ve already paid).
8. Prepay or Deposit
However, if you haven’t already paid in full for an event or service, consider prepaying or at least putting down a deposit if you can to secure your place but also to help the business keep cash coming in and supporting their operation.
Are there any other ways you’ve thought of that we could add to this blog? Let us know in the comments!
The post 8 Ways We Can All Support Small Businesses (Even While Social Distancing) appeared first on Ecommerce Blog.
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