Small Business Saturday #shopsmall

Once the busy holiday season hits, the retail race begins. Large retail chains have no problem attracting lots of customers. Year after year the number of people shopping around the the best Black Friday deals is increasing, however there is one special day that bucks this big-box trend.

Starting in 2010, Small Business Saturday has grown to become the annual holiday shopping tradition that gets communities involved in support of their favorite local small businesses and brick-and-mortar stores.  It’s a great way to strengthen your local community by encouraging shoppers to focus on the sellers in their neighborhood.

Small locally owned businesses play a central role in healthy communities. They are a crucial pillar of the community and are essential for expanding an area’s prosperity, community spirit, innovation and employment.

Small Business Saturday, an oasis between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, is a reminder that local communities can stand to benefit from the holiday spending frenzy too.

Why do Small Businesses matter?

Small businesses differentiate themselves by offering a greater variety of products to their customers. Some of these products may not be available in large retail chain stores or be specialized to a specific market. For KINeSYS, a lot of the small businesses we work with are specialized sports stores such as running shops, cycling stores, tennis retailers, etc.

Typically small businesses are heavily service-focused, because they often live in the communities and niches they serve. Some small businesses offering a specialized service to compliment the products they are selling. For example a lot of the KINeSYS Running and Cycling stores offer correct fitting for new running shoes and will measure you up correctly for your bike. We believe the specialized services offered and service-focus of our Retail Partners adds a lot of value to our customer’s shopping experience.

One of the main direct benefits of small businesses is the increased employment and training they provide to the local community. Small businesses offer more new jobs than any other type of enterprise, over the past 20 years have created over 64% of new jobs in the United States. They also offer more jobs than any other business type, with Entrepreneur Magazine reporting that small businesses employ up to 80 percent of the American workforce.

Small businesses can help increase sense of community within an area. Studies show that this can have a tremendous positive effect on both physical and mental health within a community.

When a business lacks the resources of a large corporation, employees have to get creative in order to be competitive. This has led to small businesses becoming key drivers of innovation with the products and services they provide.

Money spent at local businesses gets retained by the local economy, rather than leaking out to other regions and large corporate shareholders. This includes wages paid to local people, using local suppliers and supporting local sports teams and community causes. Also, the tax from local businesses is used on helping improve local public services.

Why Small Business Saturday Matters to KINeSYS

While big retail stores and websites tend to win throughout the holiday season, statistics have shown that Small Business Saturday has a big impact for local small businesses.

As an innovative small Canadian company is one the few remaining Canadian sunscreen brands. KINeSYS is committed to providing our customers with a quality product we are proud of. To facilitate this we are supporting local businesses through our manufacturing, testing and logistics. For this reason, the production of our sunscreens, bottles, labels, packaging, marketing and point of sale items all take place in Vancouver.

We also support small local businesses through our Retail Partnerships. The majority of our Retail Partners are small local business run by passionate owners and staff, who are opinion leaders within their sport and community. We feel through the range of specialized products and services offered in store by our retailers, these partnerships provide the best possible value for our customers. To support this we have this year decided to stand by our Retail Partners and not issuing a Black Friday promotion but instead utilizing our marketing efforts to highlight the importance of small businesses and promote Small Business Saturday.

We encourage everyone to explore their neighborhoods to discover the great things their local small businesses have to offer!

How do I get involved with Small Business Saturday?

1. Firstly go and check out the small business near you! Some of them may be having specific Small Business Saturday promotions.
2. Share your Small Business Saturday finds on social media using the #ShopSmall hashtag and encourage your friends to do the same!
3. Small Business Saturday shouldn’t just be for one day a year. Small businesses are there for their customers all year round, hopefully what you discover on Small Business Saturday will help think more about shopping locally all year round.
4. We suggest you find a KINeSYS Retail Partner close to where you live and go and check out their store.
5. Think Big. Shop Small.

How do I find a shop selling KINeSYS near me?  

Store Locator 
Our store locator helps you find a KINeSYS Retailer near you all over the country and provides lots of useful details about each one. It gives you the ability to search stores within 100km. To find a store, simply enter a town name or city into the search box and press Search.

We encourage you to check out the KINeSYS Store locator on the website to find a KINeSYS retailer in your local community.

If there isn't a KINeSYS Retail Partner close to you, but you would like to recommend a store to stock KINeSYS, please send us an email or download the KINeSYS Product Request Form. The Request Form can be filled out to introduce our product offerings to other businesses store managers and encourage them to stock our products.

The more KINeSYS products are in demand from consumers, the more likely it'll be that a retailer will make a decision to stock that product, so if you have a group of friends who would also like a store to stock KINeSYS, get them to write to the store too!

Want to become a Retail Partner?

At KINeSYS, we have created a unique partner community that we value immensely. We are currently looking for Retail Partners that are passionately seeking to expand their portfolio with proven and trusted sunscreen products that will open doors to new opportunities. To find out more about becoming a KINeSYS Retail Partner, contact us, and we'll be delighted to get in discussion with you. Your involvement makes a difference.