Small Business Survey: Local Businesses Still More Popular Than Online

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Posted Mar 29, 2016

Today is National Mom and Pop Business Day, a day meant to celebrate all of those locally or independently owned small businesses that make communities unique. While there are many different ways to support small businesses, either locally or online, some struggle to compete with larger companies. So how many customers prefer shopping at small businesses? And what are their main motivations when it comes to supporting businesses?

small business

Small Business Shoppers

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 6% of respondents said that they shop at small local businesses on a daily basis. And another 26% said they do so fairly often. However, the internet has offered the opportunity for even more people to start their own small businesses. However, just 3% of respondents said that they shop with small online businesses every day. And 16% do so fairly often.

Customer Opinions

In general, 49% of respondents said that they prefer to patronize small businesses over large ones when possible. 34% would even pay more in some situations to shop with small businesses instead of larger ones. And another 34% said they would go out of their way to shop at small businesses. There are plenty of different reasons for why people might choose small businesses over big box stores or large chains. But it seems that most shoppers really appreciate the economic impact of supporting small businesses. 54% said that they like supporting small businesses because it helps the local economy. 47% like the personalized service at small businesses. 34% like the quality items. 25% said that small businesses often offer lower prices. And 17% said they offer more options.

Favorite Businesses

Of those who like supporting small businesses, it seems that local shops are often their small businesses of choice. Restaurants are also popular, as well as local markets, hardware stores, thrift shops, farmer’s markets and retailers on online platforms like Amazon. A few favorite small businesses that respondents mentioned by name include the Bookmark Shoppe bookstore in Brooklyn, Saratoga Olive Oil Co. in Vermont and Chicago Comics. You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: Local Business from FlickrWhat do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Results were collected on March 28 via AYTM’s online survey panel.

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