# How Local Businesses Can Make the Most of Small Business Saturday Canonical page: https://sunlocke.com/articles/small-business-saturday-ideas Page type: article ## Summary Small Business Saturday is November 28, 2026. Update your Google Business Profile hours and posts, team up with nearby businesses, and make the in store and online offer match. American Express founded the day in 2010, and the Small Business Administration has cosponsored it since 2011. Plan it with your neighbors, and make Google, your website and your counter show the same hours and offer. Small Business Saturday asks shoppers to choose a local business on purpose. The shops that earn the trip plan the day with their neighbors and make sure Google, the website and the counter tell the same story. ## Article details American Express founded the day in 2010, and the Small Business Administration has cosponsored it since 2011. Plan it with your neighbors, and make Google, your website and your counter show the same hours and offer. ## Main point Small Business Saturday asks shoppers to choose a local business on purpose. The shops that earn the trip plan the day with their neighbors and make sure Google, the website and the counter tell the same story. Author: Anna Kyriazakou Section: Strategy Post type: Playbook Story format: standard ## Article content Small Business Saturday is Saturday, November 28, 2026, the day after Black Friday. American Express founded it in 2010, and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has officially cosponsored it since 2011. The day asks shoppers to choose a local business on purpose, so plan it as a local event that gives them a reason to come in person. That plan rests on accurate hours and a post on your Google Business Profile, an arrangement with the businesses around you, and the same offer in the store and on the website. ## What the day offers before you spend anything Both organizers provide free help. The SBA's Small Business Saturday page offers free marketing materials, including sample posters and social media resources. American Express runs a Shop Small resource hub with free signage you can order, downloadable social posts and printable posters, and the Shop Small Map, which American Express uses to help its card members discover businesses. Amex asks businesses to check whether they meet its Shop Small eligibility rules and says it cannot guarantee a business will appear on its maps, so check eligibility early rather than counting on it. You will also see large spending figures quoted for the day. American Express reported an estimated $18 billion in consumer reported spending at small businesses on Small Business Saturday 2025. That number comes from a survey of 2,945 U.S. adults conducted by Teneo for American Express on November 30, 2025, and, by its own description, reflects what people said they spent, not actual receipts or sales. The figure shows that the day draws public attention; it cannot forecast what one shop will take in. ## Make sure Google shows the right information On a holiday weekend, many people find you through Google Search and Maps before they decide to come. The [Google Business Profile guide](/articles/google-business-profile-setup) covers setting up and maintaining a profile. For this weekend, check three things. **Special hours.** If you open early, close late, or close on Thanksgiving, set special hours for those dates rather than changing your regular hours. Google recommends confirming your hours for official holidays even when they match your regular schedule, so customers can trust them. Google shows special hours only when the profile's business hours are set to Open with main hours, so check that setting too. **An event or offer post.** Google Business Profile posts come in three types: updates, offers, and events. An event post has a title and start and end dates and times; if you leave the times out, Google shows it as lasting 24 hours. An offer post requires a title, dates, and a time, and can include a coupon code, a link, and terms. For Small Business Saturday, use an event post if you are hosting something, such as a tasting, a demo, or a neighborhood walk, and an offer post if the draw is a deal. **Time to approve.** After you publish a post, Google reviews it against its posts content policy. A post shows as Pending while it uploads and processes, or while the profile is unverified, and a post that fails review shows as Not approved. Google also notes that posts with a phone number in the description might be rejected if the number cannot be verified as belonging to the business. Publish by the Monday before, November 23, and check that the status shows Live. ## Small Business Saturday ideas to plan with your neighbors A plan shared among neighbors has an advantage no single shop has: a street with five businesses open and promoting the same day gives a shopper a reason to make the trip. Shared plans can take several forms: * A passport or stamp card that sends shoppers to several businesses on the same block, with a small reward for completing it. * A joint post schedule, so each business shares the others' offers in the same week. * Shared hours, so shoppers are not walking up to dark windows next door at 5 p.m. * A pairing between businesses that serve the same customer, such as a bakery and a florist, or a bike shop and a coffee shop. Keep the shared plan simple enough that every business can explain it in one sentence at the register. Agree on who prints the cards or posters, who posts first, and what happens if one business sells out early. A shared budget for signs or a joint flyer costs each shop less than printing its own, and the free SBA and American Express materials may cover much of what you need. Partnerships also outlast the day: a neighbor's post or a mention on their website is the kind of [local endorsement people look for before visiting](/articles/local-business-partnerships). Your local business association or chamber of commerce is the natural organizer if nobody on your street has stepped up yet. ## Match the offer in the store and on the website Shoppers move between your door and your website all weekend. Someone sees your post on Saturday morning, checks your site, and arrives an hour later expecting what they read. When the website still shows a Black Friday offer from the day before, or the store has a deal the site never mentions, the business looks disorganized at the exact moment you want it to look local and dependable. Decide in advance: * Whether Saturday's offer is in store only, online too, or different in each place. Any of these works if every channel says the same thing. * What the homepage banner and the Google post say on Saturday morning, and who changes them Friday night. * Whether online orders can be picked up in store, and how staff will handle them during a busy day. * What staff should say when someone asks about an offer they saw online. If you sell online, the Black Friday preparation and Saturday preparation overlap; the [Black Friday website checklist](/articles/black-friday-website-checklist) covers checkout, stock, and speed for the whole weekend. Tell your own customers first. An email the week before, sent to subscribers who live near your location, goes to the people most likely to visit; the [holiday email and text plan](/articles/holiday-email-and-sms-plan) shows where it fits among the season's other messages. Saturday is also a good day to invite in person shoppers onto your text list, and [growing a text list before Black Friday](/articles/grow-sms-list-before-black-friday) explains how to ask properly. ## Service businesses without a shop floor If you are a cleaner, a trainer, or a contractor, the day is less about foot traffic. You can still take part through gift cards, a booking offer for the slow season, or a joint offer with a nearby shop that sells to the same customers. Whether any promotion is worth running at all is a separate decision, covered in [Black Friday promotions for service businesses](/articles/black-friday-for-service-businesses). ## The week after Thank the people who came, follow up with anyone who joined your email list, and ask first time visitors for a review while the visit is fresh; [asking for Google reviews the right way](/articles/how-to-get-more-google-reviews) explains what to say and what to avoid. Then take down the Saturday post and banners, and write down what worked with your neighbors before the details fade. Source: U.S. Small Business Administration: Small Business Saturday The SBA's page for the day. It gives the November 28, 2026 date, says American Express founded the day in 2010 and the SBA has cosponsored it since 2011, and offers free marketing materials. Accessed October 21, 2026. Reference: https://www.sba.gov/about-sba/organization/observances/small-business-saturday/ Source: American Express: Shop Small resource hub for merchants The American Express page for merchants taking part. It offers free signage, social posts and posters, describes the Shop Small Map and eligibility check, and says Amex cannot guarantee a business will appear on its maps. Accessed October 21, 2026. Reference: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/merchant/shop-small.html Source: American Express newsroom: 16th annual Small Business Saturday results (December 17, 2025) The American Express announcement of its 2025 results. It reports an estimated $18 billion in consumer reported spending and explains that the figure comes from a Teneo survey of 2,945 U.S. adults, not actual sales. Accessed October 21, 2026. Reference: https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/newsroom/articles/shop-small/on-small-business-saturday--american-express-reaches-goal-to-dri.html Source: Google Business Profile Help: Set special hours Google's help page on special hours. It explains how to set holiday hours, recommends confirming them even when they match regular hours, and says they show only when the profile is set to Open with main hours. Accessed October 21, 2026. Reference: https://support.google.com/business/answer/6303076 Source: Google Business Profile Help: About posts Google's help page on Business Profile posts. It describes update, offer and event posts, their required fields, how posts are reviewed and labeled, and why posts with phone numbers can be rejected. Accessed October 21, 2026. Reference: https://support.google.com/business/answer/7342169