Millennials, Minorities Most Optimistic About Small Business Growth in 2017
January 10 2017 - 8:02AM
Business Wire
Yelp Reveals Findings of Second Annual Small
Business Pulse Survey
Yelp, Inc. (NYSE:YELP), the company that connects people with
great local businesses, today released its second annual Small
Business Pulse Survey, finding that nearly 90% of American small
businesses active on Yelp expect their revenues to grow in 2016,
estimating an increase of 31% growth in the year ahead, up from
last year’s survey.
Findings show Millennial respondents and minority-owned
businesses are most optimistic about 2017. On average, Millennial
respondents project 69% more revenue growth than their older
counterparts for 2017, and minority-owned businesses project 49%
more revenue growth than white-owned businesses for 2017.
Reflecting on 2016
The majority (68%) of Yelp-listed small businesses feel their
business’ performance met or exceeded expectations in 2016. As a
long and divisive presidential election came to a head last year,
we asked respondents how the political climate impacted their
business. White business owners were 28% more likely to say it had
a negative impact on their business than minority business owners.
Also, more Millennial respondents said the 2016 political climate
had a positive effect on their business compared to other age
groups.
Political Implications
There are many political topics already being debated by the new
Congress that could impact small businesses, such as healthcare
reform, minimum wage increases and tax restructuring. When asked
what the top focuses should be for President-Elect Trump, in order
to support small businesses, Yelp-listed small businesses said
reducing regulatory burden for small businesses (44%), followed by
reducing the complexity of the tax code (31%) and ensuring small
businesses have access to capital (28%).
“Regulation, while it can create challenges for small
businesses, also ensures that businesses provide a safe and
efficient environment for customers and employees,” says Shannon
Eis, Yelp’s Small Business Advocate. “The survey respondents seem
optimistic about the work policymakers have promised will
streamline regulation for small businesses, and potentially will
ease regulatory burdens by having more targeted policies,” she
continued. “Yelp has been part of efforts to make regulation more
efficient, like our collaboration with academicians and the city of
Boston to focus restaurant health code inspections on restaurants
that are most likely to have a violation.”
Challenges in 2017
While the data shows that businesses are generally optimistic
about 2017, respondents did cite their biggest perceived challenges
for the year ahead. The majority of businesses (57%) said
attracting and retaining customers is going to be their biggest
challenge in 2017, followed by managing a limited marketing budget
(35%), competition from larger businesses (31%), and attracting and
retaining employees (25%).
“Online reviews have allowed small businesses that offer great
value and service to compete with national chains, and Yelp
provides a free platform on which businesses can market their
offerings,” Eis says. “Additionally, a study by the Boston
Consulting Group shows that small businesses with a free Yelp
business owner’s account saw an average of $8,000 in annual revenue
from Yelp, and advertisers benefit nearly three times as much,
generating average annual revenues from Yelp of more than
$23,000.”
Feedback Economy
Nearly all survey respondents (96%) report they collect customer
feedback in some form. Two in three businesses (68%) collect
feedback from online review sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor,
though that number varies depending on the business category:
- 82% of restaurant and foodservice
collect feedback from online review sites
- 71% of health and medicine collect
feedback from online review sites
- 68% of home and local services collect
feedback from online review sites
- 63% of shopping/retail businesses
collect feedback from online review sites
Although Yelp’s 2016 survey found that 74% of business owners
use social media as a digital marketing tool, this year’s findings
show that just 2% percent of business owners report gathering
customer feedback from social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.
“Many business owners tell us how much time they spend trying to
promote their business on social media,” Eis say, “but when it
comes to collecting useful and actionable feedback to help improve
and grow their business, most business owners rely on review sites
like Yelp.”
Methodology
The Yelp Survey was conducted by Wakefield Research
(www.wakefieldresearch.com) among 1,191 Yelp-listed small
businesses between December 6th and December 16th, 2016, using an
email invitation and an online survey.
Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The
magnitude of the variation is measurable and is affected by the
number of interviews and the level of the percentages expressing
the results. For the interviews conducted in this particular study,
the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus
or minus, by more than 2.8 percentage points from the result that
would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons
in the universe represented by the sample.
About Yelp
Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) connects people with great local
businesses. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in July 2004. Since
then, Yelp communities have taken root in major metros across 32
countries. By the end of Q3 2016, Yelpers had written approximately
115 million rich, local reviews, making Yelp the leading local
guide for real word-of-mouth on everything from boutiques and
mechanics to restaurants and dentists. Approximately 25 million
unique devices* accessed Yelp via the Yelp app, approximately 72
million unique visitors visited Yelp via mobile web** and
approximately 77 million unique visitors visited Yelp via
desktop*** on a monthly average basis during the Q3 2016. For more
information, please visit http://www.yelp.com or send an email to
press@yelp.com.
* Calculated as the number of unique devices accessing the app
on a monthly average basis over a given three-month period,
according to internal Yelp logs.
** Calculated as the number of "users," as measured by Google
Analytics, accessing Yelp via mobile website on a monthly average
basis over a given three-month period.
*** Calculated as the number of "users," as measured by Google
Analytics, accessing Yelp via desktop computer on an average
monthly basis over a given three-month period.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170110005306/en/
Yelp Inc.Hannah Cheesmanpress@yelp.com
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