Small Business Saturday 2026 Checklist: Ideas to Promote Sales November 28 through the Holidays

Small Business Saturday® 2026 falls on November 28. The post-Thanksgiving kickoff to the holiday season is a major sales opportunity for small businesses. 

To help you get ready, we’ve prepared a Small Business Saturday (SBS) checklist along with eight ideas you can use to promote your business and boost sales this season.

Your Small Business Saturday Checklist

• Choose your special offers, giveaways, and gift card promotions.
  
• Coordinate joint events, cross-promotions, or charitable activities, if planned.
  
• Set your Small Business Saturday and holiday hours.
  
• Update your website and Google Business Profile with event details and hours.
  
• Download Amex marketing materials and order store signage.
  
• Review inventory and order products, gift cards, and checkout supplies.
  
• Plan staff coverage and hire seasonal help if needed.
  
• Set up POS shortcuts, gift receipts, and return policy messaging.
  
• Prepare your team to explain offers and handle the holiday rush.
  
• Plan your communications for social, email, and website.
  
• Create and schedule content for promotions, including videos, posts, and emails.
  
• Set a budget, audience, and schedule for any paid ads.
  
• Share event-day updates about hours, offers, and product availability.
  
• Send a thank-you email with reasons to shop again during the holidays.
  
• Review sales, staffing, inventory, and marketing results to guide your next steps.
  

Get more detail about how to follow through on this checklist with the Small Business Saturday promotion ideas below.

1. Get Free Small Business Saturday Resources from American Express

American Express is the founder of Small Business Saturday®, and they release resources every year so small business owners can make the most of the holiday season shopping rush. 

2026 marks their 17th annual event, and we’re excited to help connect you with this year’s new batch of digital resources, including social assets, banners, and language to use in your blogs and emails—all available for free from American Express.

Visit Amex’s Shop Small hub to find resources like:

• Free marketing materials, including ready-to-use social media assets, digital banners, and printable posters
• Free signs and supplies for your store, including window decals, pennant banners, logos, and stickers to share with customers
• The Amex Shop Small® map, where you can promote your business to card members
• Neighborhood Champions, where you can find local resources in your area

These resources are a great way to get the word out to existing and new customers and let them know you’re open and ready to help them get started on their holiday shopping.

2. Run Special Promotions for Small Business Saturday

Many businesses encourage customers to come out for Small Business Saturday by running:

• Limited-time deals
• Exclusive product launches
• Creative bundles
• Discounts for shopping early or making larger purchases (e.g., “Buy One, Get One 50% Off”)
• Flash sales that last only a few hours during the day
• Free gifts with each purchase, especially seasonal offers (e.g. ornaments)
• Giveaways (e.g., a raffle for a gift basket or store gift card), freebies, and samples
• Charitable promotions (e.g., donating a portion of sales or offering discounts to customers who bring toy/food donations)
• Teaming up with other local businesses to create a larger event and draw more foot traffic (e.g., a holiday market or shop crawl with potential prizes)
• Cross-promotions with other stores (e.g., offering discounts with proof of purchase from another local shop)

3. Make Gift Cards Part of Your Strategy

Gift cards are great for small businesses year-round, but they can be especially valuable during the holiday season. Make sure your gift card offering is ready to go on Small Businesses Saturday! You can promote gift cards in-store or promote e-gift cards on your website or via email campaigns through eGiftSolutions®.

Looking for a way to make a special gift card offer for Small Business Saturday? Try offering gift cards with a bonus—for example: “Buy a $50 gift card, get a $10 gift card.” This gives your customers an easy way to give a gift while also encouraging them to return and spend on themselves. Find more tips for the holiday season is our guide to gift card marketing.

4. Determine Your Store’s Optimal Holiday Hours

If your POS has robust reporting capabilities, you can retrieve invaluable insights from your sales reports to help you prep for the coming holiday season. It might make sense to offer special Small Business Saturday hours to capture the right ROI—see what the data tells you! Look back at past Small Business Saturday sales to gauge the right times, and check industry forecasting to spot expected peak shopping windows.

Post-Small Business Saturday, you can continue to optimize for the rest of the holiday season. For example, if you typically close at 6:00 in the evening, but a majority of your sales occur after 5:30 PM, consider extending your hours for the holidays to accommodate more shoppers.

Knowing which days and times it makes sense to stay open longer can lift your sales significantly—either by accommodating your regular customers’ preferences to shop later or by attracting new customers who couldn’t visit your store when it closed earlier.

Learn more about the reporting features Exatouch offers to help you make informed decisions.

5. Manage Inventory Efficiently

Inventory is an all-important consideration when it comes to increasing holiday sales.

• Plan ahead to account for supply chain issues.
• Have enough product on hand to minimize out-of-stock items (no lost sales or unhappy shoppers).
• Don’t stock excess inventory you can’t sell.
• Use your POS to differentiate best-selling items from low performers, manage purchase orders and vendors, and reconcile deliveries quickly.
• Have plenty of receipt paper, gift cards, and employee access cards for the seasonal staff you hire.
• Evaluate whether you need an additional POS for the holidays (many businesses keep an extra station in back to accommodate higher foot traffic).

If you’re in the market for a new POS, check out our guide on what your POS should include for the holidays and 2026.

6. Customize Your POS with Shortcuts

The great advantage of POS is its ability to accommodate the needs of your business. For example, with quick ring-up features and a row of customizable buttons right on your register screen, Exatouch® POS streamlines transactions, enabling you to get last-minute shoppers in and out quickly. Label one of your buttons as a gift wrapping fee you can quickly add to transactions for those who want to take advantage of the service. Set another button to make gift card sales simple.

Exatouch also offers the ability to print gift receipts without prices, making customers and their gift recipients happy while streamlining the inevitable exchange process for your staff. You can even include your store’s return policy on the receipt to remain transparent and keep customers informed.

7. Prepare Your Team for Small Business Saturday

With more customers filling up your store, you’ll need extra employees to answer questions and ring up sales. Your POS system can help you make smarter staffing decisions by providing insight into past sales activity and employee performance. View staffing reports from prior Small Business Saturdays (or similar holidays) to help reduce your chances of labor shortages. Did you have enough team members on your busiest sales days? Or were you overstaffed on slower days? Make the most of your resources by understanding the times you need to staff up and when you can get by with a leaner team. You may need to onboard fewer seasonal employees than you think, which is a significant benefit in a tight labor market.

And remember, there are plenty of services now that can connect you with gig workers if you only need more staff for a limited time.

While you have extra hands on deck, be sure to track the productivity of your seasonal staff. With POS data, you can see which team members have the highest sales. Consider offering holiday contests to employees as a fun way to encourage sales and reward top performers with gift cards at the end of the season. If you want to transition some of your seasonal staff to permanent positions in the New Year, employee productivity data can assist with your decision-making process.

8. Reach Out Across Channels: Email, Social, Site, and Ads

Use every platform you have to promote your Small Business Saturday presence! Use email campaigns, social media, your website, and ads to alert your subscriber base about special offers you’re running for Small Business Saturday so you can get on your customers’ radars early.

Build Excitement on Social Media

Give customers a preview of what they can look forward to on Small Business Saturday. Start sharing your plans in advance, then keep your business on their radar with posts that highlight different reasons to visit.

Here are a few ideas for what you can share:

• Announcement about your participation in SBS, with weekly reminder posts
• Image carousels of your popular or seasonal products
• Video walkthroughs of your store, especially if you can show your SBS signage and promotions 
• Posts for each promotion you’re running; feature special bundles, exclusive items, giveaways, etc.
• Human interest stories, like team member features and staff product picks
• Prep videos or images to show the process of transforming your store for the holiday season
• Plenty of day-of updates to remind customers of your hours, product availability, and special promotions
• Posts with QR codes to special offers
• Google Business profile posts to feature Updates, Offers, and Events in search results

Include your location, event details, and a clear next step so customers know how to join in. Use relevant hashtags like #ShopSmall and #SmallBusinessSaturday alongside local hashtags, and tag neighboring businesses involved in your event. 

Get the Word Out with Email

A short series of emails before Small Business Saturday is critical to make sure your existing customer base can include you in their shopping plans:

• Email 1: A few weeks in advance, announce your participation in SBS, your holiday hours, and any special offers or activities you’ll be running that day. You can also encourage subscribers to follow your social media posts to stay up to date on your SBS preparations.
• Email 2: Send a reminder email one week before the event. Include a quick rundown of the essential details from Email 1 and consider featuring a particular offer.
• Email 3: Send a final reminder the day before Small Business Saturday—Black Friday. Many of your subscribers will be starting their shopping today, so make sure you remind them that they can Shop Small® tomorrow!
• Email 4: Post-event, follow up with a thank you email and let customers know what they can expect for the rest of the holiday season.

Each email should include your store name, location, SBS hours, and a summary of any promotions you’re running that day. Give subscribers an action to take, such as following your social media or visiting your website.

Here are a few subject line ideas to try out:

1. Visit Us 8am–5pm on Small Business Saturday!
2. Sneak Peek: Small Business Saturday at [store name]
3. Shop Small with Us Tomorrow!
4. Small Business Saturday is a Wrap! Here’s What’s Next

Make Your Website Part of the Plan

Make it easy for website visitors to find your Small Business Saturday offers and get excited about your offers:

• Add an SBS banner to your site
• Create an event page that includes all your offers and logistical details
• Feature Small Business Saturday on your homepage, with a link to your event page
• Make a holiday gift guide and ensure your product listings are up to date
• Advertise convenient shopping options (e.g. online gift cards or in-store pickup) if you offer them

Extend Your Reach with Ads

Paid ads can help introduce your Small Business Saturday plans to a wider audience:

• First, think through your budget and priorities to determine whether advertisement is likely to deliver good ROI for your business. Don’t advertise without a plan! You can spread a lot of awareness through social and email if ads are out of budget.
• The most accessible ad options for small businesses are often local papers and catalogs. If you have an existing ad spot in a local publication, refresh your graphic and messaging with SBS-specific content.
• Social media is often a good next choice. You can boost the posts you make to your normal feed so they show up to a wider audience. Just think through the best targeting area for your audience.
• Make each ad focus on one particular offer. Something specific like “Buy One, Get 1 Free” is often more attention-grabbing than a generic “Visit Us on Small Business Saturday.” If online, link to a relevant page on your website.
• Review performance after Small Business Saturday to help inform your plans next year.

Get more tips on extending your reach in our small business guide to omnichannel strategy.

Celebrate a Successful Small Business Saturday in 2026

As we state in our company story, Electronic Payments exists “to help small to midsize businesses (SMBs) prosper.” We’re proud to be helping American Express promote SMBs this season and all year long! As you prepare for Small Business Saturday, be sure to take a look at our 2026 holiday consumer insights guide for more data to help you strategize for the season.

Frequently Asked Questions: Small Business Saturday 2026

When is Small Business Saturday in 2026?

Small Business Saturday 2026 is Saturday, November 28, the day after Black Friday and two days after Thanksgiving).

What is Small Business Saturday?

Small Business Saturday is a nationwide movement that encourages consumers to Shop Small® by holiday shopping at local businesses in their own communities. SBS was originally founded by American Express in 2010 and has become a national movement consumers expect each holiday season.

Who Can Participate in Small Business Saturday?

Small businesses—including stores, restaurants, service providers, and online businesses—can participate by promoting their offerings and encouraging customers to shop small. You don’t need to accept American Express to participate, but inclusion in Amex’s Shop Small Map or Online Directory requires accepting American Express and meeting its eligibility criteria. Visit Amex’s Shop Small hub to explore participation and listing options.

How Can I Prepare My Business for Small Business Saturday?

Choose your promotions, set your hours, stock inventory and supplies, prepare your staff and POS, and schedule your marketing. Use the checklist above to organize your preparations and plan your post-event follow-up.

How Do I Run a Sale for Small Business Saturday?

Choose an offer that appeals to your customers and fits your margins, such as a product bundle, limited-time discount, or gift card bonus. Set clear terms, stock the featured items, configure and test the offer in your POS, and promote it before the event.

How Can I Promote My Business with Boosted Posts, Video, and Marketing Emails?

Boost a post featuring a specific offer to a relevant local audience, share videos showcasing your products and preparations, and send announcement and reminder emails. Include your location, hours, and a clear next step so customers can easily plan their visit or shop online.

Where Can I Get Resources for Small Business Saturday?

Visit Amex’s Shop Small hub for free downloadable marketing materials to promote your business. Physical event kits with items such as posters, stickers, and tote bags are available through the Neighborhood Champion program, subject to its participation requirements.