Why your website needs to be open all hours ahead of Small Business Saturday

Shop local and support Small Business Saturday (7 Dec),  you may find hidden gems. Or you may be unlucky and find the shop in darkness with a closed sign on the door.

Ahead of the day – the first one in the UK – I’m putting in a request for market traders and independent retailers to meet shoppers half way. Prepare for one of the busiest shopping days by checking that your website has the correct opening hours.

Many businesses will be opening for longer but will we be aware of their efforts to boost winter revenue?

In the countdown to Christmas retailers are busy but that’s no excuse for being elusive all year-round. One high street hairdresser here in Edinburgh happens to be closed on a Monday. I guess their regulars don’t need to be told. How many potential customers though give up trying to make an appointment? Call on a Monday and the recorded message says to ring ‘during opening hours’…and when exactly would that be, remind me again, because the website doesn’t say.

The comedy series Open All Hours is set to return to our screens, with David Jason playing the much put-upon errand boy who has inherited the running of the corner shop. Forty years later, can we expect Granville, now the self-styled Head of IT, to get the message, that there is no such thing as a local business. There’s a whole world waiting to buy from you, and technology lets you do business anywhere 24-hours a day. Get a website, keep it up-to-date – it’s easy to do, and under your control — and grow your business.

Unless you are happy to depend on the local market – and word of mouth to tell us when you will be open.