Survey: Small retail businesses fear layoffs and closures from weak holiday shopping season

Roughly one-quarter of small retail businesses fear they may have to permanently close if they are unable to meet their sales goals for the holiday shopping season, according to new survey from Digital.com.

In a poll of 1,250 small retail business owners across the U.S., 27% said they would not be able to continue operations into 2022 if the current holiday shopping season is a dud, with one-third stating layoffs within their operation were possible. The possibility of permanent closure is highest among second-hand stores (34%), department stores (32%), grocery stores (32%) and discount stores (31%).

One in five retailers acknowledged their Black Friday weekend sales fell short of expectations this year while 19% said their Black Friday-Cyber Monday sales declined from last year. The ongoing pandemic and subsequent restrictions continued to wreak havoc on small businesses, with half of the survey”™s respondents saying shutdowns impacted their revenue.

Other issues that affected revenue for small retailers this year included supply chain issues (45%), inflation (43%), and labor shortages (39%). Small businesses that require on-site employees were more likely to shoulder the burden of labor shortages: 42% of businesses that operate only brick-and-mortar locations and 41% of businesses with in-person and online operations said that a deficit of workers disrupted their revenue, compared to 32% of online-only businesses.