Houston-area small businesses hoping for increase in sales during pandemic
HOUSTON - The 2020 holiday “shopping season” is officially underway after what has been a challenging year for many business owners.
“Small Business Saturday” was held nationwide Saturday. The annual event is designed to motivate people to shop at locally-owned businesses following “Black Friday” and ahead of "Cyber Monday."
“Anything that points people in our direction is helpful,” said Bart Wittrock from Rockin Robin Guitars and Music.
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2020 has been anything but normal for business owners. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a year full of closures and restrictions.
“It’s a different time,” said Wittrock. “We’re trying to adapt like everyone is trying to adapt to this new reality and do the best we can for people.”
“It’s been a slow and kind of weird challenging year for us, but hopefully it picks back up,” said Kaylee Sted from Toys to Love.
Although stores have re-opened their doors, some customers remain hesitant to shop because of COVID-19. In order to remain competitive against big-box stores, locally owned shops are having to re-focus some effort online.
“We have to adapt in order to survive the pandemic,” said Jazmin Meza from The Little Bird. “I feel like we have been truly blessed by the people who are our clients.”
“We’ve had more and more online orders,” said Sted. “This is by far the most online orders I think we’ve ever had.”
A much needed holiday shopping season for small businesses to hopefully recover from a tough year.
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“We have increased our online sales,” said Meza. “I feel like the wave of people coming in [holiday shopping] is barely starting, where before it would be as early as September.”