Small business retailers often express frustration at big business competitors: they have more money for marketing, get better supplier deals and often have lower overheads per dollar of revenue.
In my experience, there is little to be gained from worrying about these things, which we cannot change. There is more to gain from focussing on points of difference we can leverage.
For example, we can bundle items to make price comparison difficult or impossible, we can offer a loyalty pitch big businesses will not offer, we can be flexible in how and where we pitch producers while bug retail businesses are structured and, usually, inflexible.
Bundling is particularly useful as you can create a bundle unique to your business, which feels like it is a value proposition unlike anything they have seen to that point. While this is a product by product task, it is in these small steps that you can find success, by changing shopper perspective and winning business more direct competition may have denied.
Bundles can work in gift, stationery, cards, toys and more. It is easy to use tech to manage and track this.
I am yet to see a business that cannot more creatively compete with big business competitors in ways they have not leveraged up to that point. It is about being flexible, relative and locally engaged.
Big business competitors are not going away, they are not fading in size, they are not spending less. This means we have to be smart and engaged to compete.