DDA reports strong Small Business Saturday gift-card sales and plans outreach to boost merchant redemptions

At its Dec. 17 meeting, the Royal Oak DDA presented a post-event evaluation of Small Business Saturday, saying the DDA sold more than $100,000 in gift cards in under 12 hours and that many participating merchants recorded higher sales on that day.

Staff said about 80 merchants participate in the gift-card program but that redemptions are uneven: 27 merchants had zero redemptions and a handful were outliers with disproportionately high redemptions. Staff attributed top redemptions to businesses that invested in their own marketing or staged on-site events. The DDA plans to provide coaching, visual identification materials and frontline-staff training to help participating merchants capture more redemptions.

Directors asked about redemption rates and expiration windows; staff said it would follow up with exact redemption percentages (staff estimated overall redemption roughly in the 50–60% range but deferred a precise figure until data follow-up). Staff also reported event costs: a $20,000 all-in budget for Small Business Saturday, with tote bags costing roughly $9,000 for 2,000 bags; staff suggested increasing the bag quantity next year.

Board members voted to approve the Small Business Saturday plan and budget (motion by Director London, supported by Director Dubot). Directors asked staff to report back with redemption metrics and to continue work to make promotional benefits more district-wide.