To help celebrate Small Business Saturday, which this year falls on Saturday, November 26, Uber is offering free UberPOOL rides (up to $20) for American Express Card members in New York City, after applying the promo code SMALLBIZSAT into the Uber app.
Additionally, starting November 26 and lasting through the end of the year, new riders in NYC can take their first UberPOOL ride for free with the promo code SHOPSMALL2016.
Small Business Saturday, which takes place between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, is the unofficial kickoff for small businesses to launch their holiday campaigns. This annual celebration was created by American Express in 2010, and the day is dedicated to supporting the independent businesses that help communities thrive. This is the first partnership of its kind for Small Business Saturday. The #ShopSmall movement, sponsored by American Express, encourages consumers to support small businesses in their communities.
AMEX also has a location-based online map, so that shoppers can plan their routes on Small Business Saturday.
To take full advantage of the day-long celebration of small businesses, AMEX offers a few tips for entrepreneurs:
- Put the #ShopSmall logo on your storefront or website.
- Get your merchandise in order well before the holiday season.
- Don’t just market to new customers, market to existing customers.
- Email newsletters do still work.
- Build your social media campaigns.
- Think about incentives for returning customers, such as discounts or some other kind of reward, or customer appreciation events.
- Let others know how important shopping small and locally is for the community, even if your business is B2B.
- Hold events; events done in neighborhoods are tremendously important in driving people to your community and business.
- Offer customers some sort of training as a free benefit; you want to create a strong customer relationship.
- Train employees to provide great customer service.
- Learn customers’ names.