Small Businesses and Covid-19 ; Have younger people become more interested in small businesses?

The inspirational businesses who saw the best opportunity in the worst of times.

With a year that forced most to stay at home a lot more, it comes as no surprise that social media has been at an all time high too. But just what have we all been looking at is completely unique to every single one of us.

However some things have been getting more attention as a whole, one of these things has been small businesses. In fact the popular small business website Etsy has been a more popular search term than ever since May of this year.

Online shopping as a whole has been more popular since lockdown. In fact etsy has seen a 55% increase in active customers since last year, while Shopify had a 96% percent increase in sales in their third quarter compared to last year, and Ebay’s revenue grew by 25%.

But how do different age groups play into this? I conducted a survey which looked at the shopping habits of different age groups relating to small businesses. Over 50% of those who took part reported that they saw more small businesses on their social media suggested pages over lockdown, those of the age group of 16-24 were the most likely to mention this, with 78% of them saying it applied to them.

Laura Lowe from Firefly Handmade Creations has been selling Home Fragrances since 2017, she says that during the pandemic she has received a lot more support as people are becoming more aware of supporting local businesses- “My sales have actually increased over the pandemic and are very stable and steady”

Others like Taffy from Venomous Parrot have started their business during the pandemic. She says that the goal of her business is to vocalise the thoughts of others through her apparel. She says; “I think that the internet has been a huge influence on younger people, I feel like they largely are the ones who are more likely to deliberately seek out small businesses.”

In fact many entrepreneurs have started their own businesses since lockdown. According to data from the Office for National Statistics the number of new companies registered in the UK since June have been increasing. By the end of the year there was a 15% increase since 2019.

So what makes small businesses so attractive to younger people? The process in which they do things compared to larger conglomerates can be very unique. 77% of those who took the survey stated that they liked handmade products, 72% said that they use them to buy gifts.

Many small businesses will package their orders in a unique way to increase the product satisfaction to the customer. They will add goodie bags, notes and thank you stickers to their packaging to make it stand out.

In general smaller businesses will put more effort into their orders to grow. Many will make their business personal and this is a driving force behind them. Laura Lowe said that after shopping for fragrances for her own home she was “constantly being disappointed by the prices and fragrances on offer in stores. So I took charge and decided to make my own products with the scents I loved and at a reasonable affordable price!”

For others it may be about inclusivity, as Venomous Parrot said; “I try to make designs that are mindful of people whose identities differ from mine so that they are not excluded”

These entrepreneurs seem to have a talent for seeing opportunities and making them a reality, as well as a unique way of finding gaps in the market to create unique designs, each with their own personal touch. Using Etsy as an example, there will be a range of businesses for any product you search for, but no two are ever the same.

It is clear to see that the future for many small businesses post lockdown is very bright. That being said, what are different platforms doing to accommodate their small businesses?

Amazon’s “Prime Day” 2020 designed to support small businesses saw a huge success, with many third party sellers seeing sales that increased by 60% since last year, adding up to over 3.5 billion in sales.

Amazon continues to invest in small businesses on their website by promoting them and pushing forward prime day deals from them.

On the social media side of things, TikTok has recently started a new ad credit programme for businesses of all sizes called “Back to Business”. Furthermore TikTok for Business has also introduced self- serve advertising solutions aimed specifically at small businesses and mid-sized businesses.

These self-serve tools include business accounts that will allow businesses on TikTok to view additional insights to reach and interact with their audience better. This aims to empower businesses to reach their ideal audiences and to manage their accounts better. More information can be found on TikTok’s official website.

Instagram’s new shop feature is also a direct response to the e-commerce shift during the pandemic. According to their recent press release they aim to help small businesses sell on their platform with this new feature.

Social media is a very important tool for small businesses, many on tik tok will share their process, film unique orders they have or even take suggestions from their audiences on what to create next. This all makes them so much more personal to the customer, and in that also makes them more trustworthy. Simply put people will always enjoy to interact wit the products and businesses they are likely to buy from.

Businesses who interact with their customers in unique ways also seem to do the best. Such as the ones that offer alternatives to items that a lot of their customers may not be able to use, or the ones that restock their most requested products. Customer interaction is what most businesses seem to thrive on.

In these ways it is clear to see the ways in which small businesses have become so popular over the lockdown period, especially to younger age groups who are the most likely to find them on social media and therefore are also most likely to interact with them.