Happy Independents’ Day! Here’s How to Get Involved - The Creoate Blog

And no, that’s not a typo. Independents’ Day is a grassroots, UK-based campaign to really champion independent retail businesses on 4th July (and all year round!). 

It’s been running since 2010, and it’s a campaign that’s very close to our hearts. Why? Because independent businesses are close to our hearts! And any campaign which celebrates them gets an automatic thumbs up from us. 

Independents’ Day encourages people to get out and ‘show some love for the independent retailers you value most both in your local communities and online: the ones you wouldn’t want to live without’, but that you might not necessarily have bought from before. 

What can I do to get involved? 

Didn’t realise it was Independents’ Day today? Don’t worry! As a retailer, you can still get involved by: 

• Following the campaign on social media — @ukindieday on Instagram and Twitter, and sharing with your network
• Posting on your own social media accounts — there’s a handy downloads section of assets you can use 
• Running a last-minute Independents’ Day discount — this might be tricky for brick and mortar stores, but easy enough for ecommerce 

How to prepare for Independents’ Day 2022 

With a little more time to prepare next year, here are some other ways you can get involved: 

Link up with other independents

WIth a little more time to prepare, try putting on a larger event with other independent retailers on your street. Could you run a Christmas fair-style day, and get council permission to pedestrianise your street? Or if you’re all a bit spread out, could you put together an independents ‘treasure map’ for the area? 

Create a buzz on social media 

In weeks before Independents’ Day next year, post about the day on your social media to really build up the hype. 

Why not take it a step further? You could stretch the event out over 12 days, heavily discounting one product on each day. 

Get your store to look the part

The Independents’ Day website has posters you can print out, and you can go the extra mile with a themed window display and bunting, or other decorations. 

Publish on the Independents’ Day blog 

The Independents’ Day website publishes posts from small retail businesses on a range of topics. It’s a great way to get more exposure for your business, and have your say on the topics impacting you.