How to get involved with Independent Retailer Month USA (And Why It Matters to Small Businesses)

Come July, the streets and social media will be alive with people bearing the initiative logo to show support, then spending money, running events, and telling stories about their experiences.

Read on to find out how your business and customers can get involved.

About Independent Retailer Month

July 2023 will be the 21st anniversary of Independent Retailer Month (IRM), which began as National Independent Retailer Week in 2003. 

This was a holiday started by Tom Shay to help retailers celebrate independent retail in their communities and industries. Shay collaborated with Kerry Brannigan, who had founded a comparable week for indie fashion in the North East. Then, in July 2011, we saw the first IRM across the country - and it’s been gaining momentum ever since.

“By engaging independent retailer associations, small business organizations and retail thought leaders we aim to demonstrate the importance of shopping independent.” The Independent Retailer Month website

IRM has the support of many reputable organizations sympathetic to small businesses. It has also been featured on CBS, NY1, NBC, and articles have featured it in the New York Times and Entrepreneur.

How can people get involved with Independent Retailer Month?

IRM encourages businesses and communities to come together and has created two idea banks on the IRM website. IRM understands that it is only through the initiative and engagement of both businesses and consumers that the month can achieve its goals. But it does everything it can to empower people to achieve these shared ambitions.

The focus of IRM is on conversation, sharing stories, and creating connections between shoppers and indie businesses, and between businesses too. So what could you be doing this July?

Retailers

👉 Step 1️

One of the first things a retailer can do to show support for IRM is to download the logo from their website.

The download on the website comes in printer-friendly poster form, postcard form, and “proclamation”, which indie retailers like you can display in your windows to show your support.

Local shoppers will see these posters and know you’re an independent retailer that needs their support and custom … and that you’re a business that gives back to the community in many ways!

👉 Step 2

Take a look at the community leaders page. IRM has listed advice on what you can do to help maximize the impact and outreach of the month. Here is a selection:

• 🎤 Have a local retailer (like yourself!) speak at a town meeting or local civic club as a representative of IRM.
• 🏆 Award an independent retailer that has given back to your community this year (then post about it on social media, and invite the press!).
• 🏬 Request your local information center become an independent retailer hub where shoppers can find out about events.
• 🏛️ Request that your mayor or a local representative issue the IRM proclamation at your or a similar local business or in the center of town.

👉 Step 3

Next, join the conversation in your community. Many retailers will be part of trade unions and business associations. Reaching out to organizations in your industry or area can help ensure that all retailers in your state and industry are aware of IRM and can help build momentum throughout July.

Local media can help spread the word about any events, offers, and businesses involved. The IRM website lists many activities and events that businesses across the country will be doing. Invite them to any community meetings in your area so that journalists can speak to you and other retailers engaging with IRM.

“Discuss Independent Retailer Month opportunities at community meetings and with local officials. Ask to be on the agenda for city council and county/parish government.”

-Independent Retailer Month website

👉 ​​Step 4

Don’t forget to promote your own business. In all of this community outreach, it’s easy to leave yourself behind. But the IRM activities bank on the resources page (beneath the logos) has a selection of ideas to help you plan events, offers, and more.

Here are a few to get you started:

• 👋 Host a meet and greet. Invite local shoppers to come to your store and get to know the faces behind the counter.
• 🎁 Run a contest. Online or in-store (although in-store is better), encourage participation by giving away a product to the winner of a contest.
• 🗺️ Organize a shopping crawl. Team up with local shops to map out a route of local indie shops for consumers to visit.
• 🎶 Reach out to local talent. IRM is about building community and relationships. Host an event with local artists, DJs, and designers, where commerce and the arts can join together to get the best out of each other.

👉 Step 5

Finally, IRM cannot stress this enough, post! Post! Post! 

Independent Retail Month wants to create a national community, and there’s nowhere better to do that than on social media, where distance means nothing. Add the logo to your social media stories regularly and create a post too, using the hashtag #indieretail.

Shoppers

If your actions gain attention from the online and local community, you’ll likely be asked what non-retailers can do to support you and IRM. So it’s good to have an answer for them. Alternatively, if you’re in the hospitality industry or are just an enthusiastic shopper, what can you do in July to show your support?

Well, firstly, posting with the tag #indieretail on social media and engaging with retailers' posts can go a long way to starting the trend that IRM is after. 

Starting conversations and connecting communities is what the campaign is all about, and any retailer knows word of mouth is some of the most valuable marketing you can use. So talk to your friends and family about the day and about your favorite local retailers.

Next, ask your local retailers if they’re involved in the movement, and if they’re not, direct them to https://www.indieretailermonth.com/ and encourage them to join in. 

Finally, seek out some local independent retailers you’ve never visited before, and head over in July. When retailers get increased footfall in July, it will show that the campaign is working. After all, connecting indie retailers to their communities is what it’s all about.

Why does Independent Retailer Month matter?

IRM seeks to foster a social and commercial environment better suited to the tens of thousands of small, independent retailers in the US of A. Staying competitive is becoming more difficult with the rise of eCommerce, supermarkets, and high streets increasingly without independent presence. That’s why initiatives like this matter.

IRM believes that the best way to combat this is by helping to give indie businesses connections within their communities. For many small retailers, the importance is to try and increase recognition in their local areas as much as possible. 

By running a successful Independent Retailer Month each July, shoppers can get to know the local retailers, see what’s on the shelves, and can start to think of independents and the valuable services they offer every bit as quickly as they do the big-name brand. Especially when they’re thinking of those unique, meaningful products and services that small shops offer customers and the key role they play in their communities.

So print off that poster, share your story (and your latest promotions) this July and help your community support you by supporting Independent Retailer Month 2023! 🙌🎉