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Summary

152,000 Small Businesses In Canada Want You To Shop Local For Black Friday Weekend

You can shop local & still do it all online!
Contributor

Black Friday weekend is around the corner and one Canadian federation wants you to exclusively shop locally and support small businesses in canada

It's being called Small Business Saturday. The term is popualr in the U.S. and is now being used by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business to urge customers to take a pause on shopping only with retail giants.

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152,000  small businesses in Canada are new to eCommerce since March

Only 38% of smaller businesses are having regular sales while one in seven could face the possibility of permanent closures, according to the federation.

It's not for a lack of trying, because reportedly 152,000 new small businesses have entered the eCommerce sphere and have been ready to get down to business since March.

Unfortunately, it has not been enough.

One in five businesses depends on online sales to stay afloat yet a quarter of businesses using eCommerce are having a hard time making enough income.  

"With 2020 being the toughest year ever for many businesses emotionally and financially, we are urging people to make every effort to support small business," CFIB Executive Vice-President, Laura Jones said.

"It's not always our first instinct to look for small businesses online but many have now worked really hard to make this an option." 

  • Osobe Waberi was a Toronto-based Ethiopian-Somali Francophone writer at Narcity Canada. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a specialist degree in journalism and a news media diploma from Centennial College. Before Osobe’s gig as a national trending writer at Narcity, she worked at Toronto Star, The Canadian Press, VICE, and CBC.

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