WELLINGTON, Fla. — 2020 has been a year of firsts for many businesses, and in just a few days, the biggest shopping weekend of the year will be another test for small business owners.
Many small business owners found themselves learning to do more business virtually this year, and with no way to gauge how many people will shop in-person this Black Friday, they’re hoping going digital could make it the most successful shopping holiday.
When businesses had to shut down early in 2020, Debbie Pincus, owner of The Kloset Kouture in Wellington, found herself pivoting and making masks to stay in business.
But with a shop full of clothes, handbags, and jewelry, she and her family had to think outside the closet to survive.
"We focused on online and we started these Wednesday night live events," Pincus said.
They also branched out into the app store.
"You'll see all the items that we feature and right there they can click on the picture and it plays. So if you see my top it will actually show the top in live video of me explaining what its made of and you can see the fit on me," Pincus said.
Other businesses like clean beauty company Crunchi based out of Stuart depended on that in-person interaction to sell products, but COVID-19 forced them into more possibilities in the virtual world
"Before we were really limited geographically, but now having this experience and gone through this, we see, wow, you can connect someone with someone completely across the country through video through Zoom," said Kelly Kreusler, the co-owner of Crunchi.
Crunchi's online pre-Black Friday sales are in full swing, and The Kloset Kouture will have store hours and sell live on the biggest shopping weekend of the year.