Despite the shorter shopping season this year, Small Business Saturday proved successful last weekend, as shoppers reported spending a whopping $5.7 billion with independent merchants nationwide.

Many local shops were expecting the influx in business as they had seen similar results in recent years, and statistics show that awareness was up and shoppers were out. According to a survey by the National Federation of Independent Business and American Express, small businesses had a successful day last weekend. It is important to advocate for annual events such as these to Ensure development of your business as the custom that it brings can be extremely profitable.

Consumer awareness of Small Business Saturday jumped to 71 percent this year, a four percent increase from last year. Also, nearly half of those aware of the day set aside for local business participated in the shopping.

Small Business Saturday was not the sole day for local deals either. Some small stores, like Ritzy Ragz and Thingz of Downtown Turlock, are continuing the deals this weekend.

The consignment boutique’s two extra days of deals started on Friday, with their Black Friday Dj Vu event. The store will offer 50 percent off all clothing on Saturday.

Main Street Antiques at 208 E. Main St. will be continuing sales from dealer 13 through Christmas. Alquist Arms at 120 S. Center St. will soon be featuring a 12 days of Christmas sale, and Envy Fine Clothing at 227 E. Main St. is continuing sales in-store. Envy will also be hosting an Ugg representative on Saturday to help customers “bling” out their Ugg boots. Any customers who purchased Ugg from Envy in 2013 will receive the “bling” treatment for free.

Perhaps the continued sales are a testament to the generosity of local owners, or perhaps they are a reflection of the impact of Small Business Saturday. Forty-one governors have now recognized the day across the nation, including California Gov. Jerry Brown (D).

“In an uncertain economy, America’s small businesses have remained a beacon creating good jobs and supporting the families they employ and the communities around them,” said NFIB CEO Dan Danner. “We are very pleased that so many Americans sought to give back by shopping small this Small Business Saturday.”

Hannah’s Boutique of downtown Turlock thanked customers on Small Business Saturday by writing to Facebook followers, “Thank you for supporting your local small businesses. By doing so you aren’t buying high executives new jets, you are allowing moms to put their daughters in ballet, send their son to football camp, and to show their children they can accomplish anything they put their mind to. So thank you again for shopping with our small, local businesses.”

Small businesses are often quick to thank loyal, local customers, and it does not go without notice from shoppers. Whether it’s a physical store or an e-commerce store, any small business owner will be extremely grateful that you chose to purchase some of their products. Smaller businesses really do rely on the sales to keep themselves open, so any purchase is so important for them. However, as small businesses don’t usually have consistent sales, many of them do try and fix this by using various marketing techniques. Recently, search engine optimization has become popular among small business owners. These businesses just have to get in contact with a top digital marketing agency in los angeles, or somewhere more local to them, and they can achieve a digital marketing campaign that helps them to increase sales and revenue. This is worth keeping in mind, small businesses never know what tomorrow is going to hold, so they may need to increase their digital marketing at some point. This should help them to increase sales.

“We hope that support of small firms, retailers, restaurants and other independent businesses continues throughout the holiday season and all year round,” said Danner. “Continued support of this vital sector is one important way to ensure our economy fully recovers and a healthy private sector is restored.”