Consumers spent around $5.7 billion at local retail stores on Small Business Saturday last year, according to a Redshift Research study commissioned by event organizer American Express, up 3.6% from 2013 (see "$5.5B on Small Business Saturday").  This despite a drop in overall sales numbers for the holiday weekend reported by the National Retailer Federation.
 
The NRF reported that shoppers spent an estimated $57.4 billion from Thanksgiving Day through Sunday, December 1st, a decline from the $59.1 billion reported during the same period in 2012. That shows a slight increase (0.6%) of the total dollar amount spent at small businesses last year.  That shift likely accounts for the NRF’s plan to track Small Business Saturday sales separately for the first time this year.
 
American Express began its "Small Business Saturday" program in 2010, to encourage consumers to "shop small" the day after Black Friday by patronizing small, neighborhood brick-and-mortar merchants, hoping shoppers would shift a larger portion of their purchases to locally-owned  businesses on the busiest shopping weekend of the year.
 
Both American Express and its Premier Partners (Eventbrite, FedEx Office, Yelp, and Bing) are offering marketing support for small businesses for the event.  More advice and tips and advice on how to capitalize on Small Business Saturday can be found on the U.S. Small Business Administration website or the Small Business Saturday Facebook page.