JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The 2021 holiday shopping season is here, and once again, small mom-and-pop retail stores are competing with major corporate-owned stores to attract customers through their doors.
Major stores chains have the financial means to advertise their holiday sales on radio and television, but many small businesses owners don’t have that kind of money, so they are using social media to even the playing field.
In the heart of downtown St. Augustine, Old City Hammocks sits in a corner off Saint George St. Jeanette Berdine is the store owner. She said when customers purchase her hammocks, kites and other products from her store, she encourages them to post pictures and comments on Facebook about the items they purchased.
“People post pictures of kites, their hammocks, their animals in the hammocks. It’s cool. That’s how I get word of mouth, through Facebook mainly,” Berdine said.
So far, it’s a business tactic that she said is helping to bring new customers through the door. She also said online retail giant Amazon.com is one her biggest competitors.
“I’m not hating on Amazon, but a person can also get the same merchandise here and support us,” Berdine said.
When she said the words “support us,” she wasn’t just referring to her store but the other small mom-and-pop stores that are situated throughout downtown St. Augustine.
“It’s important to keep us going, all the stores around here, not just mine,” Berdine said.
Thirty-six miles away from Old City Hammocks is a store in Jacksonville called the Forgotten Toy Box. It’s a small store where the young and the young at heart come to purchase new toys and used collectibles that are hard to find at some major stores and sometimes online. John Bowman is the store owner who, like Berdine, relies on social media to create a word-of-mouth atmosphere that brings people through the door.
“Social media plays a big part in our overall business day-to-day,” Bowman said.
According to Bowman, social media posts about his store typically starts when a new customer walks in and is awe-stricken by the vast number of toys filling the racks and hanging from the ceiling. Then he said that same customer will take pictures of the toy displays or collectibles they purchased.
“They go out and post it up to their Facebook account, Instagram account or Twitter account then share it out across social media,” Bowman said.
While the store has a vast collection of toys that include Transformers, Marvel comic book characters, G.I. Joe and everything related to science-fiction movies and TV shows, the store’s biggest draws is the massive Star Wars collection of new and used toys.
“They’re blown away that they can see it. They like to share it. They may know people who are looking for stuff so with just a click on their phone they can shoot it off and post it. Who knows how many people are going to see it from there?” Bowman said.
Across town at the Beau Outfitters store in San Marco, sales began days before Black Friday. Store owner Loretta Trentman said social media posts about their customer service and quality of their merchandise is helping them compete with major clothing stores.
“As a small business, we’re typically on a small marketing budget and we rely on word of mouth and social media -- friends sharing and tagging other friends. So, we rely on it heavily, especially this time of year,” Trentman said.
She also believes the use of social media is not only evening the playing field with major retailers, but also encouraging more shoppers to support local small businesses.
“We are seeing a great small business support presence, last year and this year. And even more-so this year,” Trentman said.
Small Business Saturday was first observed on Nov. 27, 2010. It was set up to encourage shoppers to patronize small and local businesses. But Small Business Saturday is only one day. The store owners we spoke with said shoppers should be encouraged to support small businesses throughout the holiday season and beyond.