A small-business holiday-shopping campaign led by American Express is peaking just as a new survey says Americans have the warm fuzzies for local mom and pop shops.
The promotional campaign, Small Business Saturday, is aimed at supporting small businesses on one of the busiest shopping days of the year: the Saturday after Thanksgiving. American Express is offering in-store promotional signs, online marketing materials, and $100 in free Facebook ads (while they last) to certain participating retailers. And top sponsor FedEx (NYSE:FDX) is giving away 30,000 “Shop Small†American Express gift cards worth $25 each as part of the promotion.
American Express says that last years’ participating businesses saw a 28 percent jump in sales compared with the same shopping day in 2009. At the same time, a recent survey finds that Americans have positive vibes about small business but have more mixed views on big companies.