SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY 2026
Small Business Saturday is November 28 — here's how to be ready
The Saturday after Thanksgiving is the one day of the year shoppers go looking for businesses like yours on purpose. Two weeks is enough to get found, take the sale and keep the customer.
Free to build · Pay when you publish
The short answer
Small Business Saturday is Saturday, November 28, 2026 — the Saturday after Thanksgiving, between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. American Express started it in 2010, in the middle of the recession, to send holiday shoppers to small businesses; the US Small Business Administration has co-sponsored it since 2011, and the hashtag is #ShopSmall.
It's a shopping day, but it isn't only for shops. A plumber, a groomer, a salon or a tutor gets the same thing a bookstore does: people in a shop-local mood, with gift lists, looking at their phones for a business nearby. The work is the same for everyone — be findable, have something to buy, and keep the customer's details.
The plan below takes two weeks, most of it on your website and your Google profile. The gift certificate template and the holiday hours sign are the two printables it uses.
AT A GLANCE
Small Business Saturday 2026
| Detail | Small Business Saturday 2026 |
|---|---|
| Date | Saturday, November 28, 2026 — the Saturday after Thanksgiving (Nov 26) |
| Where | The US. The UK runs its own Small Business Saturday on the first Saturday of December — Dec 5, 2026. |
| Who runs it | American Express, since 2010; the US Small Business Administration co-sponsors it, since 2011. |
| The hashtag | #ShopSmall |
| Free materials | American Express publishes free Shop Small posters and social posts for business owners each year; the SBA's Small Business Saturday page links to them. |
| Next year | Saturday, November 27, 2027 |
THE PLAN
How to get ready for Small Business Saturday
Six jobs, in the order they pay off. Most are an hour each; start by the 14th and you're done with a week to spare.
Make your website current
The phone number, the services and prices, the hours, and one obvious thing to do — book, order, buy a gift card. Shoppers check the site before the door. No website? Two weeks is plenty to launch one.
Update your Google Business Profile
Holiday and Saturday hours as special hours, three new photos, and a post that says you're taking part. It's the listing most people see first.
Have gift cards ready to sell
Printed certificates at the counter and gift cards on your website: the easiest sale of the day is a gift of your service to someone who isn't there. Number and log every one.
Decide the offer
Something only for the day: a bundle, a free add-on, a January appointment booked at Saturday's price. An offer beats a discount — it gives people a reason without teaching them to wait for the sale.
Tell people the week before
One post with the offer and your hours, an email to past customers, the sign in the window. The people who already know you are the ones most likely to come.
Make paying easy on the day
Cards and phone payments at the counter, a payment link for anyone who calls, and the booking page open for the people who'd rather come in January.
Two weeks is enough
Get your website ready before the 28th
Add what you do, your town and your business name to the sentence, and Zarla builds your website from that one line — your services, your hours, a booking form and a way to pay. Edit it in chat, publish when you're ready, and — on a paid plan, with Stripe connected — turn gift cards on for the day.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.
Twelve Small Business Saturday ideas
1. A Saturday-only bundle. Two things you already sell, together, at a price that makes the second one the gift: a cut and a product, a detail and a wash voucher, a lesson and a workbook.
2. Gift certificates at the counter and on the website. For a service business this is the day's main product — the customer is buying for someone else. Keep a stack printed and the online version switched on.
3. “Book January at Saturday's price.” For trades and appointment businesses: a slot in January booked on the day gets a small extra. It turns one busy Saturday into a full first week of the year.
4. Team up with the business next door. A receipt from theirs is worth something at yours and the other way round. Two customer lists for the price of one conversation.
5. A free add-on with every job or purchase. The drain check with the service call, the gift wrap, the extra ten minutes. Cheap for you, remembered by them.
6. The story post. Who you are, why you started, who works here — posted the week before with the hours and the offer, and the #ShopSmall hashtag. It's the post that gets shared.
7. Open the doors. A demo, a tasting, a look behind the counter. A plumber showing what a good install looks like gets photographed; so does a cake.
8. A thank-you to the people who already buy. An email to past customers the Monday before: thank you for the year, here's what's on Saturday, here are our holiday hours.
9. Launch the loyalty card. If you've been meaning to, this is the day: every Saturday customer leaves with a card that's already stamped once.
10. Local delivery or collection for the week. For anything bought as a gift: deliver it in town, or have it wrapped and waiting on a date they choose.
11. A share to a local cause. A dollar from every sale to the school, the shelter, the team. Say which, say how much, and post the total on Sunday.
12. Photograph the day. The queue, the counter, the team. Next year's post writes itself, and your website gets real photos of real customers.
THE COUNTDOWN
The two-week countdown to November 28
Everything above, as dates. Start on the 14th and the last week is just the posts.
- Sat, Nov 14. Website check: phone, hours, services, prices, and one clear button. No site yet? Build it this weekend.
- Mon, Nov 16. Google Business Profile: Thanksgiving-week and Saturday hours as special hours, three new photos, your services listed.
- Wed, Nov 18. Gift cards: print a stack of certificates and the log; switch gift cards on at the website.
- Fri, Nov 20. Decide the Saturday offer and write it down in one sentence — the sentence you'll post, email and put in the window.
- Mon, Nov 23. Email past customers: thank you, the offer, the holiday hours. Put the holiday hours sign up.
- Wed, Nov 25. Post the story and the offer with #ShopSmall; pin it. Set the voicemail greeting with the hours.
- Fri, Nov 27. Float in the till, card reader charged, the booking page open, the gift certificates by the register.
- Sat, Nov 28. Open on time. Take photos. Write down every new customer's name and email.
After the day: keep the customer
The sale on the day is the small prize. The customer who comes back in February is the real one, and that only happens if you have a way to reach them.
Write down every new customer — name, email, what they bought — on the day, in whatever you use for contacts. On the Monday after, one email: thank you for shopping small, here are our holiday hours, here's what's new in January. The gift certificate recipients are next: when a certificate is redeemed in January, that's a new customer walking in, so treat the visit like a first one.
If your website is on Zarla, the contacts from the form, the bookings and the gift card buyers already sit in the same dashboard, and the holiday hours go on the site in one line of chat.
Small Business Saturday: common questions
Saturday, November 28, 2026 — the Saturday after Thanksgiving (Thursday, November 26), between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In 2027 it falls on Saturday, November 27.
American Express, in 2010, during the recession, to encourage holiday shoppers to buy from small businesses on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The US Small Business Administration has co-sponsored it since 2011, and the campaign's hashtag is #ShopSmall.
No. It's a shopping day, so retailers and restaurants see the most foot traffic, but service businesses get the same shop-local mood: gift certificates for a service, January appointments booked on the day, and people searching for a local business on their phone. The preparation is the same — be findable, have something to buy, keep the customer's details.
One post the week before with three things: who you are (the story, the team), what's on for the day (the offer, in one sentence) and your hours — with #ShopSmall. Pin it. On the day, photos of real customers and the counter; on Sunday, a thank-you.
No, and most small businesses shouldn't — a discount teaches customers to wait for the sale. An offer works better: a bundle, a free add-on, a January appointment at Saturday's price, or a share of the day's takings to a local cause. People come for the reason, not the percentage.
American Express publishes free Shop Small posters and social posts for business owners each year, and the US Small Business Administration's Small Business Saturday page links to them.
The UK runs its own Small Business Saturday on the first Saturday of December — December 5, 2026. Australia has no fixed national day, but the same shop-local push runs through the December weekends, and everything on this page applies to them.
Print certificates for the counter — the template on this site is free — and sell gift cards from your website for the people buying from home. If your website is on Zarla, turn gift cards on and the site sells them for you: the buyer pays by card, the recipient gets a branded digital card by email, and every balance is tracked in your dashboard — on a paid plan, with Stripe connected.
Sources
Read October 23, 2026.
- US Small Business Administration — Small Business Saturday — the 2026 date, founded by American Express in 2010, SBA co-sponsor since 2011, #ShopSmall, the free marketing materials
- American Express — History of Small Business Saturday — created in 2010, during the recession, for the Saturday after Thanksgiving
Be the small business they find on the 28th
Add what you do, your town and your business name, and Zarla builds the site from that one line — with gift cards, bookings and payments in the same dashboard.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.