SCHAUMBURG, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 21, 2024--
A new survey by NMI ®, a global leader in embedded payments infrastructure, reveals that 87% of consumers say gifts from small businesses are more thoughtful, while 78% of consumers are willing to pay more to help small businesses thrive.
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The survey of 1,000 U.S. adults explores consumer attitudes and shopping patterns, offering actionable insights to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) understand how they can attract and retain customers. The findings come as the holiday shopping season approaches and ahead of American Express® Small Business Saturday, which takes place on November 30 this year.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are king, but Small Business Saturday gains traction
The survey highlights strong emotional connections associated with supporting small businesses and found that 53% of consumers surveyed feel a sense of belonging or community, 49% feel satisfied, and 40% feel proud. While 49% of consumers plan to shop on Small Business Saturday, this trails the 66% who plan to flock to big box stores for Black Friday (66%) and Cyber Monday (61%) deals, indicating that SMB owners still struggle to convince holiday shoppers to shop small. Coffee shops, casual takeout restaurants and bakeries top the list of small businesses most likely to win consumers’ hearts this year.
Millennials lead the charge in supporting small businesses
Millennials emerged as the most supportive demographic for supporting small business, with 90% agreeing that gifts from local outlets are more thoughtful, 83% willing to pay more to help SMBs, and 81% more likely to shop small during challenging times like economic turbulence or natural disasters.
This tech-savvy group also has higher expectations for convenience. Online ordering was cited as a key factor influencing consumers to shop at larger retailers, with 39% of Millennials and 34% of Gen Zers highlighting it as a deciding factor. Flexible payment options, such as contactless payments and mobile wallets, were a draw for 42% of Gen Zers and 29% of Millennials, compared to 21% of U.S. adults overall.
Local products drive holiday cheer, but outdated checkout experiences emerge as the Grinch
When asked why they might choose a large retailer, service, or hospitality brand over a small business, modern checkout experiences emerged as a significant factor, particularly for younger generations. Online ordering was cited by 32% of U.S. adults as a key draw, increasing to 39% among Millennials and 34% for Gen Z. Similarly, 21% of consumers pointed to flexible payment options as an advantage, with this figure climbing to 42% for Gen Z and 29% for Millennials. These preferences align with the most popular payment methods consumers use when shopping small, including credit/debit cards, cash, and contactless options like Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Peter Galvin, CMO at NMI, said:
"Small businesses employ more than 61.7 million Americans and are the backbone of our economy, driving job creation and fostering vibrant communities. More than that, they bring pride and joy to the communities they serve. As the payment platform of choice for more than 4,000 partners and their merchants, NMI is a long-time small business advocate, which is why we’re proud to support the American Express Shop Small® initiative and Small Business Saturday. Our survey highlights that to survive in today’s challenging economic environment, small businesses must adapt to evolving customer expectations. Secure, fast, and flexible payment options are key to winning customer loyalty and those that embrace omnichannel strategies and modern checkout experiences will be well-positioned for success this holiday season and well into the future.”
Shop Small and Small Business Saturday, now in its 15th year, is a sales holiday and social media movement by American Express designed to bring attention to small, local merchants. This year Amex is aiding small businesses affected by Hurricanes Helen and Milton, by donating $1 to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation for each eligible Card purchase made at qualifying U.S. small businesses on November 30. To learn more and access resources visit: https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/benefits/shop-small/
For independent sales organizations (ISOs) and software companies seeking ways to ensure their merchants make the most out of Small Business Saturday, learn how NMI offers everything they need to start taking payments online, in-store, via mobile, however their customers want to pay and talk to our team.
About NMI
NMI is a global leader in embedded payments, powering more than $225+ billion in payment volumes every year. From our industry-leading payment gateway technology to our seamless merchant underwriting, acquiring, onboarding, and management platform, we enable our partners across the entire payments ecosystem. We help our partners deliver frictionless payment solutions to their customers, offering modularity, flexibility, and choice, wherever and however consumers want to pay – online, in-store, in-app, mobile, and unattended. And we’re constantly innovating, empowering ISOs, software vendors, and payment professionals as they embrace the future of fintech. Learn more at www.nmi.com
NMI survey: coffee shops, casual takeout restaurants and bakeries top the list of small businesses most likely to win consumers’ hearts this year (Photo: Business Wire)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sluggish December hiring concluded a year of weak employment gains that have frustrated job seekers even though layoffs and unemployment have remained low.
Employers added just 50,000 jobs last month, nearly unchanged from a downwardly revised figure of 56,000 in November, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.4%, its first decline since June, from 4.5% in November, a figure also revised lower.
The data suggests that businesses are reluctant to add workers even as economic growth has picked up. Many companies hired aggressively after the pandemic and no longer need to fill more jobs. Others have held back due to widespread uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s shifting tariff policies, elevated inflation, and the spread of artificial intelligence, which could alter or even replace some jobs.
Still, economists were encouraged by the drop in the unemployment rate, which had risen in the previous four straight reports. It had also alarmed officials at the Federal Reserve, prompting three cuts to the central bank's key interest rate last year. The decline lowered the odds of another rate reduction in January, economists said.
“The labor market looks to have stabilized, but at a slower pace of employment growth,” Blerina Uruci, chief economist at T. Rowe Price, said. There is no urgency for the Fed to cut rates further, for now."
Some Federal Reserve officials are concerned that inflation remains above their target of 2% annual growth, and hasn't improved since 2024. They support keeping rates where they are to combat inflation. Others, however, are more worried that hiring has nearly ground to a halt and have supported lowering borrowing costs to spur spending and growth.
November's job gain was revised slightly lower, from 64,000 to 56,000, while October's now shows a much steeper drop, with a loss of 173,000 positions, down from previous estimates of a 105,000 decline. The government revises the jobs figures as it receives more survey responses from businesses.
The economy has now lost an average of 22,000 jobs a month in the past three months, the government said. A year ago, in December 2024, it had gained 209,000 a month. Most of those losses reflect the purge of government workers by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
Nearly all the jobs added in December were in the health care and restaurant and hotel industries. Health care added 38,500 jobs, while restaurants and hotels gained 47,000. Governments — mostly at the state and local level — added 13,000.
Manufacturing, construction and retail companies all shed jobs. Retailers cut 25,000 positions, a sign that holiday hiring has been weaker than previous years. Manufacturers have shed jobs every month since April, when Trump announced sweeping tariffs intended to boost manufacturing.
Wall Street and Washington are looking closely at Friday's report as it's the first clean reading on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.
The hiring slowdown reflects more than just a reluctance by companies to add jobs. With an aging population and a sharp drop in immigration, the economy doesn't need to create as many jobs as it has in the past to keep the unemployment rate steady. As a result, a gain of 50,000 jobs is not as clear a sign of weakness as it would have been in previous years.
And layoffs are still low, a sign firms aren't rapidly cutting jobs, as typically happens in a recession. The “low-hire, low-fire” job market does mean current workers have some job security, though those without jobs can have a tougher time.
Ernesto Castro, 44, has applied for hundreds of jobs since leaving his last in May. Yet the Los Angeles resident has gotten just three initial interviews, and only one follow-up, after which he heard nothing.
With nearly a decade of experience providing customer support for software companies, Castro expected to find a new job pretty quickly as he did in 2024.
“I should be in a good position,” Castro said. “It’s been awful.”
He worries that more companies are turning to artificial intelligence to help clients learn to use new software. He hears ads from tech companies that urge companies to slash workers that provide the kind of services he has in his previous jobs. His contacts in the industry say that employees are increasingly reluctant to switch jobs amid all the uncertainty, which leaves fewer open jobs for others.
He is now looking into starting his own software company, and is also exploring project management roles.
December’s report caps a year of sluggish hiring, particularly after April's “liberation day” tariff announcement by Trump. The economy generated an average of 111,000 jobs a month in the first three months of 2025. But that pace dropped to just 11,000 in the three months ended in August, before rebounding slightly to 22,000 in November.
Last year, the economy gained just 584,000 jobs, sharply lower than that more than 2 million added in 2024. It's the smallest annual gain since the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the job market in 2020.
Subdued hiring underscores a key conundrum surrounding the economy as it enters 2026: Growth has picked up to healthy levels, yet hiring has weakened noticeably and the unemployment rate has increased in the last four jobs reports.
Most economists expect hiring will accelerate this year as growth remains solid, and Trump's tax cut legislation is expected to produce large tax refunds this spring. Yet economists acknowledge there are other possibilities: Weak job gains could drag down future growth. Or the economy could keep expanding at a healthy clip, while automation and the spread of artificial intelligence reduces the need for more jobs.
Productivity, or output per hour worked, a measure of worker efficiency, has improved in the past three years and jumped nearly 5% in the July-September quarter. That means companies can produce more without adding jobs. Over time, it should also boost worker pay.
Even with such sluggish job gains, the economy has continued to expand, with growth reaching a 4.3% annual rate in last year's July-September quarter, the best in two years. Strong consumer spending helped drive the gain. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta forecasts that growth could slow to a still-solid 2.7% in the final three months of last year.
FILE - A hiring sign is displayed at a grocery store in Northbrook, Ill., Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
