American Express’ latest Shop Small campaign urges shoppers to do their Christmas shopping with small hospitality businesses this year to help accelerate their recovery.

To support the campaign, new research by American Express shows the potential opportunity to help reinvigorate the small business sector is even greater.

Gill Minervini, the newly appointed festival director of Sydney’s most iconic light extravaganza, Vivid, says each small business owner told her it was largely down to the support of their local community that has kept them operating.

“I’m proud to be part of a campaign that encourages support for the sector at a critical time of year, as not many people have had it tougher than small business owners lately,” she says.

The data shows that shoppers are intending to dig deep this Christmas to potentially spend, on average, $220 per gift for loved ones.

The research also reveals that because of the pandemic, 23 per cent of Australians have shopped more with small businesses.

Of these, nearly seven in 10 say they want their money to contribute to small business’ survival and 35 per cent say it makes them feel good to support small businesses.

The research was commissioned by OPR Agency on behalf of American Express and was conducted by Lonergan Research.

Lonergan Research surveyed 1,059 Australians aged over 18 and 520 small business owners between 13 and 25 October 2021.

“Compared to last year, average sales are down 35 per cent and operators are pulling out all the stops to make this Christmas successful,” says Vice President of Small Merchants for American Express Lisa Belcher.

This rally for support comes as Gill will create spectacular festive window displays in three small businesses, bringing joy to local communities and much needed foot traffic into stores.

The three small businesses that have been chosen for the campaign are Art on King, an arts and crafts store which also sells books, stationery and gifts; Collector Store, a fashion, homewares and furniture store; and HANDSOM, a women and men’s clothing store.

American Express will showcase the story of the festive windows in a series of videos highlighting the businesses who are featured in the campaign.

For more information, click here.