It’s the season of spending time with loved ones and showing them your love and gratitude through thoughtful holiday gifts. So, when you’re shopping for holiday gifts this year, make shopping small a priority. Shopping small and/or local businesses is a win for everyone.
Whether you want to treat yourself to a holiday gift or have a long list of loved ones to shop for, make it a priority to shop small this Christmas. Here are 8 easy ways you can shop consciously, support your community and champion small businesses this holiday season.
- Have a Game Plan & Budget.
- Recycle Gift cards.
- Prioritize your Loved ones.
- Prioritize shopping locally/small businesses.
- Commit to shop small for 24 hours.
- Share your experience with a social post.
- Subscribe to their mailing list.
- Leave a review.
- Have a Game Plan & Budget. Don’t go into this thing without a game plan. If you want to be efficient and not bankrupt, decide ahead of time what your total spending will be for gifts. This will further help you prioritize people, and aid in not getting carried away at the store or online.
- Recycle gift cards. It might sound pretty bad, but you can create a zero-sum game for yourself if you re-gift leftover gift cards that people might have given you for your birthday. .... or use them to buy others gifts! Just don’t tell anyone you did it. …. 😊
- Prioritize your loved ones. There’s a pecking order to everything. Decide from the beginning what you’re going to spend on your parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, and filter it out. Obviously your closest loved ones are the folks that you really need to be concerned with. Distant relatives or friends aren’t really going to be expecting too much of you. If you’re on a budget, don’t succumb to the guilt trip. .... I’m sure they won’t.
- Prioritize shopping locally. We’re guessing you have a long list of gifts you need to buy for your loved ones. Instead of turning to a big-box retailer or national department store, shop small businesses first. Chances are, a local/small business or maker can deliver on your shopping list.
- Commit to shop small for 24 hours. Choose one day of the holiday season to dedicate to shopping small businesses. Start the day with a cup of coffee from a local café or at home in your PJ’s…, indulge in some self-care at a nearby spa, do some holiday shopping at neighborhood boutiques or online small businesses and end the evening at your favorite restaurant or a takeout order.
- Share your experience with a social post. If you bought something for yourself, show off your purchase with a post on Instagram or Facebook. And don’t forget to follow the business’s social pages and like, comment or share their posts to help them get noticed.
- Subscribe to their mailing list. An active, engaged mailing list is a valuable tool for any small business. Whether over email or through traditional mail, keeping an up-to-date contact list lets business owners stay connected to clients, build relationships and cater to specific audiences.
- Leave a review. It can be tricky for small business owners to ask for reviews…but they need (and want!) them. As a customer, leaving a glowing review is one of the best and easiest things you can do to support a small business. Even if it’s been a while since you’ve used or bought anything from them, show your favorite small businesses some love during the holidays with a fresh review