We’ve taken a look at government support for small business in Canada, but what about corporate support? Al is visited by Gerardo Welter, Vice President – Marketing & Business Insights Canada and Latin America at American Express. They talk about Amex’s Shop Small campaign, and they also share some promising trends for shopping small in Canada based on consumer shopping research.
We’ve taken a look at government support for small business in Canada, but what about corporate support? Al is visited by Gerardo Welter, Vice President – Marketing & Business Insights Canada and Latin America at American Express. They talk about Amex’s Shop Small campaign, and they also share some promising trends for shopping small in Canada based on consumer shopping research.
Another great event to support small business in Canada is the Elevate Festival. Al brings you on-the-scene interviews with participants from last year’s festival to give you a taste of what you can expect this year.
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Allan: [00:00:00] Happy August. A couple of weeks ago we put out a bonus episode featuring Moneris CEO, James Hicks, and Federal Small Business Minister, Rechie Valdez. They talked about the different government programs and supports available for small business in Canada. If you haven't heard that episode, I strongly suggest you go back and check it out. It's got a lot of really useful information.
But government isn't the only source for this kind of support. There's a lot of corporate support available as well. This month, we're going to talk about some of that support. Why? Because, it's just good business.
Joining me as co host this month is Senior Events and Sponsorship Specialist Daniel Stranges. Daniel, thank you so much for co hosting this month.
Daniel: Hey Al, it's my pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Allan: Now, Daniel, the reason I asked you on this month is because Elevate Festival is quickly approaching and your team's been busy.
Daniel: Oh, we sure have. Moneris is back as a founding sponsor of the festival and the presenting partner of the Scale Up Stage.
Allan: The festival is taking place in Toronto October 1st to 3rd. Daniel, for those who don't know, what is Elevate Festival? [00:01:00]
Daniel: Elevate Festival is Canada's most influential tech and innovation event. The festival focuses on technology, innovation, and innovation. Innovation, sustainability, and community engagement. It brings together influential innovators and industry experts.
Allan: Now I went to my first festival last year and was blown away by all the entrepreneurs. I must've heard a dozen pitches. There were some really cool ideas too.
Daniel: Oh yeah. There's a lot of investors and founders and a lot of great speakers there. For example, this year we welcome Silicon Valley's most powerful tech journailst Kara Swisher and Canadian astronaut and business leader, Chris Hadfield, among others. It's just overall an amazing educational and networking event.
Allan: Well, now that I know what to expect, I can't wait to go this year. Where can folks get tickets?
Daniel: Tickets are on sale now at ElevateFestival.ca/tickets.
Allan: I'll post that link in the show notes.
Daniel: So what do you have in store for us this month, Al?
Allan: Well, as I mentioned, I was at last year's Elevate Festival and I had the opportunity to chat with some of those entrepreneurs in attendance. So I've put together some of those interviews [00:02:00] in a two part series, and we'll have part one of that series later on in the pod.
Daniel: That sounds fantastic. And what else do you have?
Allan: Well, a couple of weeks ago, I posted a bonus episode of Just Good Business featuring a chat between our CEO, James Hicks, and the Federal Small Business Minister, Rechie Valdez.
Daniel: Oh yes, I heard that interview. It was great to hear about some of the government programs and support available for small businesses in Canada.
Allan: I agree. But you know, there's plenty of corporate support too, not just from us, but from our partners as well.
Daniel: Such as?
Allan: Well, I had a chance to sit down with Gerry Welter from American Express to talk about one of their campaigns called Shop Small and learn about what they're doing to support small business in Canada.
Daniel: Sounds good.
Allan: And of course, resident data expert Sean McCormick pays us a regular visit to share some consumer spending data around this year's Calgary Stampede.
Daniel: Oh, giddy up.
Allan: I'm loving your enthusiasm.
Daniel: I hate that you made me say that Al.
Allan: Let's just begin with this month's featured interview with Gerry Welter.
joined by Gerry Welter. He's the VP of Marketing and Business Insights, Canada and Latin America at American Express. Gerry, thank you so much for joining me today.
Gerardo: [00:03:00] Thank you for having me Al.
Allan: Now, what is it you do as the VP of Marketing and Business Insights at American Express?
Gerardo: In my role, I sit on the acquirer's side. So my line of business is responsible for making sure that cardholders can use their card wherever and whenever they want. So my main responsibility is communicating that to them and driving that connection between cardholders and businesses.
Allan: During the pandemic, we heard a lot of people talking about, you know, going back to shopping small, supporting small local businesses. This is something American Express has been doing well before the pandemic with a program called Shop Small.
Gerardo: That is correct. As you stated, Shop Small has been around for over 12 years. It's a global and Canadian program that originated from our commitment to small businesses. Back then we saw an opportunity to celebrate and support small business owners and drive meaningful engagement between our CARD members and their community. We wanted to create a program that not only encouraged spending locally, but that [00:04:00] also celebrated the unique offerings of personal connections that most small businesses bring to neighborhoods across Canada.
Allan: What has been the impact of this program since its inception?
Gerardo: It's been profound, really. We consistently see increased foot traffic and sales for participating businesses during and post promotional periods. And this year alone, 930,000 businesses are participating in shop small.
Allan: Is that 930,000 in North America or...
Gerardo: it's just Canada.
Allan: Wow. That's, that's amazing!
Gerardo: It truly is. And beyond that, it's also the sense of community and solidarity that it's created among business owners. It's not just the increased revenue. It's the visibility. And the recognition that comes with being part of Shop Small.
Allan: So for our listeners who are mostly entrepreneurs and small business owners, what are some of the main benefits for a program like this?
Gerardo: I'm pretty sure it's not the first time you hear this, but our card members are quite loyal and the average transaction size is much higher than a non American Express card member.
Allan: Okay.
Gerardo: So through this program, we [00:05:00] connect these card members to small businesses to help drive business and loyalty. We have personalized recommendations. So. What we do is we have an algorithm that allows us to generate recommendations through email that are personalized and customized based on their area and their patterns. And we also have a map. It's a website where our card members can look at the different merchants that are accepting American Express and we have a tag with the shop small. So during the Spangap periods, they can easily see where they can redeem the offer.
And speaking of offers, that's also one of the main drivers of this program. We have this spend/get offer where card members get an instant benefit just by spending at the participating merchants.
Allan: You mentioned this program has been going on for 12 years. I'm sure it's evolved and changed over that period of time, especially throughout the pandemic. How has it evolved over the last 12 years?
Gerardo: It started [00:06:00] as a program during small business Saturday in the United States. And once it started migrating into international, it really started to become a movement. And when the pandemic hit. It really became our main brand messaging. We really wanted to make sure that we were there to support small businesses during such a hard time. And this year-round movement truly became the main driving force behind all of our communications.
We've actually continued to evolve and we've expanded partnerships with local organizations such as business improvement areas, commonly known as BIAs. Because we really want to be targeted and localized to drive the spend that these small businesses need.
Allan: So taking advantage of this program, Amex becomes a de facto marketing agency for your business.
Gerardo: Pretty much.
Allan: Now in 12 years, I'm sure you've seen some trends. What are some of the main trends you're seeing right now with how consumers are shopping locally?
Gerardo: According to some data from Amex Canada, [00:07:00] independent shops and stores are among the top five retailer types that Canadians are frequenting the most. They really are valuing authenticity, quality, personalized services. And this is exactly what small businesses offer.
The other piece is digital. The digital integration has become pivotal. More and more transactions are happening in the online space. The importance of these initiatives like Shop Small, we need to promote local businesses, but facilitate it in a seamless digital interaction between consumers and merchants. So that's also been a big focus for this campaign.
Allan: What other activities is American Express doing to support small businesses in Canada?
Gerardo: As I stated, our commitment goes beyond Shop Small. We have access to funding and capital through our financial services. We offer business insights and analytics as my job title says that we just want to help entrepreneurs make informed decisions. We also have a grant and mentorship programs, for example, the backing international small restaurants program, where across Toronto and Montreal, we offered [00:08:00] 20 grants of $19,500 Canadian dollars each and we also run a grant and mentorship program for small businesses with the DMC. And so far since 2021, we've supported Around 250 businesses with $2.5 million in grant funding.
Allan: Yeah. So there's a lot of support available for small businesses. If I'm an entrepreneur, small business owner right now, and I wanted to learn more about all these different options and programs and grants or the Shop Small campaign, where would I go?
Gerardo: So you can always go to our Shop Small website. We also have a point of purchase signage store that they can visit and order materials that are free of charge that are meant to help you attract our card numbers into your stores.
Allan: Right.
Gerardo: And we're, we're truly just passionate about fostering local economies and we really want to empower small businesses to succeed.
Allan: So that's Amex.ca/ShopSmall. I'll include the link in the show notes for anyone who's interested.
Gerry, thank you so much for your time today!
Gerardo: Thank you so much. Al
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Allan: I'm joined by the Director of Business Development at Moneris Sean McCormick. Sean, thank you so much for joining me today.
Sean: Good to be back, Al.
Allan: Now we're halfway through the year. We're halfway through the summer, actually. Why don't we get a bit of an update on overall 2024 trends, especially in restaurants and retail.
Sean: Yeah, well, Al, we just saw the Bank of Canada drop interest rates for the first time in a long time in response to what they're seeing in the Canadian economy. And we're seeing the same thing in our aggregate spending results. So what we do at Moneris is we can look into individual category spend, things like apparel, restaurant, gas and convenience, airlines, these [00:10:00] types of categories, and we can see year over year trending.
What that means is we look at week 26 of 2024, and we compare that against week 26 of 2023.
Allan: mm-Hmm.
Sean: And then we can apply some methodology to remove manir business bias. We can see how much is that category as a percent up or down in spend year over year.
And what we're seeing. In a couple of really important categories, apparel, for example, weekly year over year change in dollar volume is down anywhere between 10 percent and 15 percent year over year.
Allan: right.
Sean: Since the beginning of the year every week, there's a couple of anomalous weeks in there that are only down 2 or 3%, but for the most part, every week in 2024 is down between 10 and 15 percent in apparel versus 2023.
If we look at something like restaurants, for example.
Allan: Right.
Sean: The story isn't quite as gloomy, but there's not a lot of positive [00:11:00] gains year over year. In fact, as I'm looking at this number now, there has not been a single week in the last 20 that represent positive year over year gains.
Weekly year over year dollar volume. Is down anywhere between 2 and 5 percent year over year for 2024. So that's not a great story to tell.
Allan: No.
Sean: but it is reality and it aligns with what we're hearing from the RCC, the Retail Council of Canada. They recently surveyed their membership. And their members responded that their year over year sales, the number of members that were reporting sales were down versus 2023, 70%. Only 30 percent of their members are reporting that sales are up versus 2023.
Allan: Yeah. And I mean, it shouldn't really come as a surprise to anybody who's been paying attention, but hopefully what happens now with this recent interest drop, and hopefully that trend continues and maybe that'll apply some upwards pressure.
Sean: That's the hope, that's what Tiff Macklem is thinking. Whenever they drop rates, they're trying to make [00:12:00] money cheaper. And if you offer money cheaper. Then you get more construction. You get people with more room to spend money in their credit lines. And you are in theory generating more economic activity as you cut rates.
Allan: Let's turn our attention to some more fun news. Now, as we speak today, it's day three of the Olympics in Paris and team Canada is doing pretty well. We've got four medals already. One gold, one silver, two bronze. So go team Canada!
Sean: Yes, sir!
Allan: Now, in terms of Canadian tourism spend in Canada, we did just have one of our marquee events in this country, and that's the Calgary Stampede. How does that look?
Sean: Well, we've looked at the Calgary Stampede from two different lenses. One was looking at the 10 day period of the Stampede this year versus the 10 day period last year. It was actually, it was a longer event last year. It was closer to two weeks. This year it was 10 days and we did some adjusting to accommodate for that difference.
But what we saw. Is the week over week lift in the Stampede in aggregate. So total spend in Calgary [00:13:00] was 175 percent in entertainment, hotel and restaurants in aggregate. That's a lot. That's, that's almost 3x, right? Because 100 percent represents doubling. 200 percent represents a tripling. So in the categories of entertainment, hotel and restaurants combined, it was 175 percent lift versus a non stampede week.
If we look at that year over year, so versus the stampede last year, the aggregate total. Still up 16%. So this year's stampede from a total spend standpoint in entertainment, hotel and restaurant, that's a 16 percent lift over last year's event. That I surmise as a success.
Allan: Yes, definitely. It looks great for the city of Calgary and the province of Alberta too, which just saw those increases as well.
Sean: Yeah, a little bit less dramatic from the provincial standpoint, but the aggregate of entertainment hotel restaurant week over week across Alberta represented a 66 percent jump and the year over [00:14:00] years. That is stampede week. This year versus stampede week. Last year was an 11% bump Alberta-wide.
Allan: It's certainly a big marquee event in this country and back to its original glory.
Sean: Yeah. And if I can add one more "Did you know?", I'll give you the top five countries for foreign spend in Calgary during Stampede 2024, the U S was number one, 60 percent of all foreign cards were from the U S. Followed by the UK, Ireland, Australia, and Singapore.
Allan: Interesting. Singapore in there. Okay. Thank you so much as usual for your time, Sean.
Sean: My pleasure, Al.
And now, as I mentioned off the top, I was in attendance at last year's Elevate Festival and had a great time chatting with some of the entrepreneurs who were there networking and pitching to potential mentors and investors. Here's some of those conversations.
Yeah. So you're having a lot of good conversations here.
Elizabeth: A lot of good conversations about a lot of different things. You can hear from my voice. It's a little bit...
Allan: I know, I know I'm, I'm the same. You're my first interview of the day and I feel like I've been talking all day!
So I'm, I'm joined here by Liz Connell and [00:15:00] you are the co founder and president of African Bronze Honey and 10,000 Beekeepers.
Elizabeth: Yes.
Allan: Now, you know, it's kind of evident in the title, but why don't you tell us a little bit about what your company does?
Elizabeth: So what we do is we market. Organic forest honey made by wild bees harvested by 10,000 beekeepers in forests in Zambia and Tanzania. And the reason we do that is, um, to help fight climate change.
The forests were being cut down and because now the beekeepers earn a sustainable income. By harvesting this very healthy honey, they protect the forests and in fact now they're growing and capturing carbon.
Allan: And when did you first start this company?
Elizabeth: We started our company about 10 years ago. But the beekeeping project that we work with in Zambia was started about 25 years ago by a friend of ours.
He was born in this forest and it was his dream. To do something to help ensure that it was protected. And so he went up there to, you know, try to do that. And some [00:16:00] beekeepers approached him and said, What we really need is for you to help us find a market for our honey. And so he started training beekeepers and they ended up with about 6,000 beekeepers, producing about 800 tons of honey every year. Certified organic honey. Marketing to Europe.
Allan: Right.
Elizabeth: But he wanted to be able to get into the North American market, and we met up with him and thought that sounded like a fun thing to do.
Allan: Right. I mean, what was your background before that happened?
Elizabeth: I'm in communications. I'm a visual artist. My partner is an actor. And so, you know, we have a lot of different skills. We haven't done anything like this before.
Allan: All right. So, I mean, 10 years, that's a long time. You're an established business. Why then did you choose to go through the eCommerce North incubator?
Elizabeth: So the mainstay of our business is selling bulk honey to food and beverage manufacturers.
Allan: Okay. So B2B.
Elizabeth: B2B, but like large volume, drums of honey. And we are a CFIA honey packing facility and we wanted to [00:17:00] increase our sales through our e commerce of our packaged honey. And a friend actually recommended us and I, you know, signed up and it was a great experience. I learned a lot about the things to do and not to do when, you know, trying to sell a product e commerce. I made some really good connections. It was over a year ago that I did this.
Allan: That's great. So it was a worthwhile...
Elizabeth: absolutely.
Allan: And now you're here today at the Elevate getting a lot of, uh, buzz. Pardon the pun.
Elizabeth: Yeah, we're talking to, well, people who are interested in what e commerce North is. Also telling people about Honey and they're buying some. But we're hearing from a lot of people who are supporting business. Supporting startups or have a technology that could help people. So it's a really great place to get new ideas and meet new people.
Allan: Thank you so much for your time today, Liz.
Elizabeth: Okay, thanks.
Allan: I mean, it's been a busy day here, hasn't it?
Olivia: Yeah, it's been crazy.
Allan: I'm joined by Olivia. She's from After9, Inc. Olivia, thank you for joining me today. [00:18:00]
Olivia: Thank you for having me.
Allan: So Olivia, why don't you tell us a little bit about After9, Inc.
Olivia: After9 is luxury maternity nursing activewear that actually makes you want to get pregnant.
Allan: That's quite the statement.
Olivia: It is.
Allan: So what, uh, I mean, tell us a bit about the products you sell.
Olivia: We make everything from maternity leggings to nursing bras and nursing tops, but make no mistake, there is no sign that any of these clothes look maternity whatsoever. Typically when we think of maternity, where we think of those Frankenstein leggings, you know, where, where there's like a mismatched fabric at the waist and in the legs, and it looks like what I said, Frankenstein.
Allan: Sewn together. Yeah.
Olivia: Whereas in the after nine legging, it's a seamless design where the fabric and the legs always matches the waist. So nobody can actually tell it's maternity wear, but it offers you a flawless fit during your pregnancy and something you can wear long after.
Allan: Interesting. So how long have you been in business?
Olivia: 20 months.
Allan: 20 months. So you're relatively new. When did you join the eCommerce North Accelerator?
Olivia: So I joined the eCommerce North [00:19:00] Accelerator earlier this year. I was part of their last cohort.
Allan: Okay. Why did you do that?
Olivia: I launched an e commerce business. But when I launched it was locked down. And the thing about being a fresh ecom business is you have no trust, right? I was really naive about what it takes to build an ecom business. I thought I could launch with some fancy photography and a great website and run some Facebook ads and ba boom! We have a booming business. that so did not happen. So basically women who are pregnant with bellies that change more in nine months than a man's body will in his entire lifetime, they actually don't trust a brand they have never heard of to fit them perfectly.
Allan: It makes sense.
Olivia: I didn't really know I had a business till my first baby show in May of 2021. And from there as a founder, you double down on what works. So when I went to this baby show and I sold out of bras and leggings in two days, I was like, okay, so I definitely have a business, but women like to shop in person.
So I launched an e com business, ran it like bricks and [00:20:00] mortar. And I actually joined the e commerce North program to figure out how to be an online store because. Up until that point, my online store was really just, it was sort of an extension of the in person business, if you will, right? If you know us, here's a website where you can buy us. But at that point, whatever I had tried to scale that e comm store wasn't working. Yeah. So I just doubled down on what was, which was in person and the e commerce north program just completely changed how I ran my business moving forward. And now I do have an e comm business.
Allan: That's great. Is this your first time at Elevate Festival?
Olivia: Yes, it is.
Allan: I mean, it's been a pretty crazy, busy day. I'm sure you've made a lot of connections.
Olivia: Yes, I've made some amazing connections today. I've met a lot of media today. It's great to meet media face to face. Pitching a story in person is so different than pitching it online. And as a founder, you always want to be talking to reporters.
Allan: It's crazy. Everyone I've met today has had their elevator pitch ready to go. And I'm like, wait, wait, I'm just a podcaster. I can't help you. I'm not an investor.
You got the... [00:21:00] really? Oh, so... Olivia is showing me she's carrying around a basketball and she's, she's, um... I don't know how to... okay. She's shoving it down her pants to show the elasticity of her active wear and how it can change according to your body type. That's impressive.
Olivia: And then it just. Snaps back when you're done.
Allan: So I can see how your elevator pitch is very memorable.
Olivia: Absolutely. It's one thing to talk about maternity wear. It's another thing to shove a basketball down your pants and talk about that these pants really do fit a growing basketball.
Allan: Amazing. Thank you so much for your time, Olivia.
Olivia: Thank you!
Allan: I need you to get like nice and close to that mic.
Aashni: All right. Is this good enough?
Allan: This is great. All right. Thank you so much, uh, Aashni. I'm joined by Aashni and she's from HypeDocs. Aashni, thank you for joining me today.
Aashni: Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Alan.
Allan: So tell me a little bit about HypeDocs.
Aashni: Yeah, so HypeDocs is a platform we're building to specifically help companies engage and retain the talent or the employees that they already have. Okay. And we're taking a different twist on it by focusing on what the employees need. So employees are asking for more transparency and accountability on how you're building your career [00:22:00] at this company.
If we look at what's happening in the environment, a lot of people are leaving their companies because they don't actually know how or when they're going to get promoted or get recognition for the work that they're doing. And that's specifically what we're targeting.
Allan: how long have you been in business?
Aashni: So we launched our original version two years ago. I launched it as a side hustle.
Allan: Yeah.
Aashni: In the last few months and I've actually started focusing on it full time and we have just launched a Slack app to make it even more interactive and much easier for employees and employers to use.
Allan: I've been hearing more and more about these side hustles that become businesses. It's amazing, especially here today.
Aashni: Absolutely. And especially when that side hustle gives you more joy than the company you're working at. And to some extent when it starts paying you more. I'll let you know how that feels once I'm there... but...
Allan: Yeah let me know because that'll be an interesting feeling. I'm sure. So what are you doing here at Elevate Festival?
Aashni: So I think my two goals are always just meeting lots of fun, interesting people. And then as a startup founder, looking for new clients, specifically looking for partners to help test our product and help us build and grow it further too.
Allan: I mean, it's been so far, like today, it's been a buzz with movement. I've had so many people come to me [00:23:00] with their elevator pitches. Have you had a lot of....
Aashni: I'm, I'm here with an investor badge as well. Not just a startup. So I've, I've been very fortunate to be able to invest in a few other startups and one just exited too, and it's been so fascinating seeing things from both sides, both as like startups coming up to pitch to me, but also going and like talking to other businesses and trying to pitch my product to them. There's so much happening and so many products across every industry. It's really exciting.
Allan: what are you hoping to get from, you know, being here and meeting with the investors and with other startups?
Aashni: From the investor perspective, I'm looking to deploy capital starting next year again and so just looking for fun, smart startups that are building things that have a really big positive impact and then for myself as a startup, looking for customers to help validate what we're building. At the end of the day, I want to make sure I'm building a product that's actually helping people and not just something that's making money. though if it does both, I'm obviously much happier.
Allan: Yeah. Well, the DJ is starting to play us off here, I think. But thank you. Oh, wow. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Aashni: It's like a perfect way to exit this.
Allan: Exactly. It's almost like I planned it.
Aashni: Thank you so much, Al. Lovely to meet you.
Allan: That's [00:24:00] all we have for this episode. month, Daniel, did you learn anything new today?
Daniel: For sure! I learned that consumer spending is down this year, but hopefully the Bank of Canada interest drop will simulate some spending again. How about you?
Allan: Well, I learned that people from Singapore dig the Stampede.
Daniel: Oh boy.
Allan: That was supposed to be yeeha.
Daniel: I'm drawing the line there Al.
Allan: Suit yourself. I'll post links to Amex's Shop Small campaign and Elevate Festival in the show notes. If you're listening right now and you have any questions about any business related topic, you can email us at Podcast@Moneris.com and we'll answer them in future episodes.
Daniel, thank you so much for co hosting this month.
Daniel: Al, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate the invite.
Allan: On behalf of Daniel, myself, and the rest of Moneris, it's just good business saying thank you for listening. See you in September.