Small Businesses Give To Customers, Skip Employees
By Staff -- Gifts and Dec, 11/9/2009 2:52:00 PM
New York – Almost half, 47 percent, of small business owners are planning to give gifts to clients despite the tight economic climate, according to the American ExpressOPEN Small Business Holiday Monitor. That’s down slightly from 52 percent last year. However, one in ten are planning to increase customer gift giving this year. Total customer gift budgets remain practically unchanged: $455 in 2009 compared to $457 in 2008. Only 35 percent plan to give gifts to employees, down from 46 percent in 2008.
Forty two percent are specifically planning to give fewer gifts or less expensive gifts; 28 percent are avoiding laying out cash for gifts by using reward points, bartering, or using their own company’s products/services and 23 percent are no longer giving gifts to clients
The most popular client gifts are cards and calendars; followed by gift cards; fruit and food baskets and charitable donations. More expensive gifts, such as branded or monogrammed items, declined to 7 percent from 19 percent in 2008.
Entrepreneurs in the West are more likely to give gifts to customers, at 51 percent, and to employees (40 percent), however those in the North Central states have the biggest holiday budgets ($566).
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