When is Small Business Saturday 2026, and how does your store join in?

When is Small Business Saturday 2026?

Small Business Saturday falls on Saturday, November 28, 2026 in the US, and on Saturday, December 5, 2026 in the UK. The US day is always the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which is Thursday, November 26 this year. Next year the same rule gives November 27, 2027.

American Express founded the day, and the US Small Business Administration cosponsors it. Shoppers have reported spending an estimated $241 billion at independent shops on the day, summed across American Express surveys since 2012. Those surveys count what people say they spent, not receipts.

The UK runs its own campaign on the first Saturday in December, also supported by American Express. If you ship to both countries, you get two Saturdays a week apart.

Dates checked November 5, 2026, on American Express's Shop Small page and the Small Business Saturday UK site.

Can an online store take part in Small Business Saturday?

Yes. The day has no sign-up, and nothing requires a discount. American Express offers your store two main things, and only one of them depends on its cards.

• Free marketing materials: the Shop Small Resource Hub has posts and posters to download, and you don't need to accept American Express to get them.
• A place on the Shop Small Map: the map lists eligible stores that take American Express cards, and online stores can appear in its Online Directory.

The map has rules. For 2026, your store has to be based in the US or a US territory. It can take no more than $7 million a year through American Express cards. A store that takes the cards only through a payment company that doesn't pass the store's details to American Express is left out.

If your cards run through Shopify Payments, ask American Express whether your store can be listed before you count on it. Once you are on the map, an edit to your listing can take 2 to 3 business days to show.

What should your store offer on Small Business Saturday?

Give Saturday its own reason to buy, not a repeat of Friday's discount. Shopify's retail holiday calendar suggests sharing your founder story and behind-the-scenes photos, and running limited-edition collaborations. Put the story in the banner and the email. Then pick one offer.

• A small batch or a limited edition, on sale only that day.
• A Saturday-only code for your email list, worth less than Friday's offer.
• Gift cards, for shoppers buying ahead for December.

Slip a note into every parcel that says who packed it. If Friday's sale is still live on Saturday, decide now whether the two may apply together, before a shopper finds out at checkout.

What should you schedule before Saturday?

Set everything up by Friday, and set every start and end in your store's own time zone. Shopify reads a discount's dates in the time zone set in your admin, not your laptop's or the shopper's. To check it, open Settings, then General, and look at Time zone under Store defaults.

1. The code: in Discounts, open the code and find "Schedule", the section that sets when it runs. Start it at 12:00 AM on November 28, click Set end date and end it that night.
2. The email: in Shopify Messaging, under Apps, open the campaign and click Review. Then click "Schedule send", the button that holds the email for later, choose Custom date and time, pick Saturday morning and click Schedule.
3. Friday's pieces: give every Black Friday banner, badge and countdown an end on Friday night, the theme's announcement bar included, so Saturday opens on Saturday's message.
4. The check: on Saturday morning, open the store on your phone, add a product to the cart and confirm the code applies and Saturday's banner shows. The rest of the check is in how to test your store before Black Friday.

How do you show the Saturday offer on your storefront?

Sledge is a Shopify app that puts a banner and a countdown on your store, plus badges on the products you pick, each starting and stopping at the times you set. Each start and end you set under Active dates is read in your store's time zone.

For a banner, open Promotion in Sledge's Tools, then Banner, and click Add banner. Under Active dates, choose "Scheduled to start later", the option that lets you set a start, and set November 28 at 00:00. Tick "Has end date", the box that adds an end, and end it at 00:00 on November 29. A banner set to start right now has no end date, so it runs until you switch it off. Under Surfaces, switch on where it shows: collection pages, the search page, the search drop-down or the cart drawer.

A badge campaign marks the products the day is about, such as the ones you make yourself. Open Merchandising, then Badge Campaign, and click Add badge. Under "Select products by", choose "Specific products" and add those products by hand, or choose whole collections, then give the badge its own label and the same dates. Sledge never picks them for you by tag or by sales.

Under Promotion, a global countdown runs a bar across the top of the store. Choose "Countdown to date" as its timer type, so it counts down to an hour you pick on Saturday, by each shopper's own device clock. The default, Fixed minutes, loops back to full time whenever it hits zero. Banners and countdowns work on the 14-day free trial, and badge campaigns come with every paid plan.

What comes after Small Business Saturday?

Sunday and Monday still sell, and Cyber Monday ends the run on November 30. The first order from a Saturday shopper is the one worth a thank-you email. A limited edition that sells out can come back later with its own launch email.