Customer connections in the digital era

Leveraging the right tools allows small businesses to get a leg up on their larger competitors and enhance the customer experience

// By Mandy D’Autremont, Vice-President of Marketing Partnerships, Canadian Federation of Independent Business

This month, government officials from all corners of the globe, associations, the private sector, and other stakeholders are meeting as part of the OECD Digital for SMEs Global Initiative. Their aim is to identify and share the most successful ways to support digital transformation of smalland medium-sized businesses (SME). The digital age offers huge potential concerning automation, innovation, the ability to connect with customers in new ways, and to find new customers from afar.

Digital strategy

Many Canadian businesses have been at the forefront of digital adoption and ecommerce. Half of Canadian small businesses say they plan to sell online as a permanent strategy going forward from the pandemic, according to a 2021 survey conducted by Maru/Matchbox on behalf of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).

But finding a way to make online sales profitable is still a challenge for most small businesses with only one-in-four reporting that ecommerce has proven a success for their business as of the start of 2021. Ecommerce is not a magic bullet - the digital world is competitive and crowded, with big and small businesses alike vying for the same customers’ attention.

Impactful local presence

Local retailers have the ability to outshine big businesses – budgets may be smaller, but they have grit, persistence and heart. Small business owners know their customers personally and what they are looking for. They can make an impactful and memorable local presence. And Canadians can feel good about supporting the dreams of their fellow Canadians.

Small businesses can also leverage Small Business Saturday (November 26), a day to celebrate and encourage shopping local. CFIB started this day over a decade ago to champion shopping local. In 2020, we moved it to the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, so that small business owners can have their own avenue to kickstart holiday shopping.

The power of our digital era is that we can bring businesses from across Canada together to spotlight the importance of shopping local and rein- force the positive feelings Canadians have when they buy from their favourite Canadian businesses. You can get free toolkits from SmallBusinessEveryDay.ca, with printable posters and downloadable digital assets to celebrate Small Business Saturday, but also #SmallBusinessEveryDay.

Small Business Saturday

With inflation pressures, it isn’t surprising many Canadians are planning to spend less this holiday shopping season. Twice as many Canadians plan to spend less for Black Friday/Cyber Monday than they did last year (38% plan to spend less compared to 21% who plan to spend more) according to the Angus Reid Group’s Consumer Economic Pulse, Wave 6 report. With half (48%) of Canadians planning to look for deals on the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, we hope small businesses can make the most of this weekend by leveraging Small Business Saturday to promote their business.

Our vision is that through our digital connectivity we can encourage more Canadians to choose to shop local for the holidays. Consumers can also share their small business recommendations and shop local messages online. This is another way digital connectivity can support the movement.

Protecting the business

Small business in the age of digital isn’t just about sales and marketing. Digital transformation can be different for every business. Some may be looking at how they can leverage new 5G technology to automate and innovate their business processes. With this comes a need for awareness of cyber risks for small businesses. Hopefully, in 2023, all businesses will focus on enhancing their cybersecurity measures and training their employees so everyone in their business knows how to protect it from cyberattacks. CFIB will be launching a new Cybersecurity Academy in the coming weeks to offer cybersecurity awareness training to small businesses and their employees. When 95 per cent of cyber breaches are a result of human error, education is the number one way to prevent becoming a victim of a cyberattack.

As conversations continue on the global stage around what a digital future looks like for small businesses and the best ways to support them, each small business will be pressing forward on the right digital opportunities for their business. These resources and tools discussed in this article can be found on cfib.ca and SmallBusinessEvery- Day.ca.

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Mandy D’Autremont is the Vice-President of Marketing Partnerships at the CFIB, the largest non-profit organization representing over 95,000 businesses across Canada.

Small Business Saturday is brought to you by CFIB and American Express and supported by Canada Post.