Q4 2011 Merchant Confidence Survey -- Full Results

Several folks have asked for the full analysis from the Q4 Merchant Confidence Index survey, so here ya go!  This presentation is chock-full of stats pertaining to small business owners' thoughts about our economy, the future of small business hiring and trends in the adoption of new marketing channels like daily deals, pay-per-lead and mobile advertising.



Enjoy!



Sincerely,

The MerchantCircle Team

MerchantCircle Q4 2011 Merchant Confidence Index

View more presentations from dswaddell

MerchantCircle Confidence Index (MCI) Survey Results - Q1 2010

Below are the results of our second quarterly Merchant Confidence Index (MCI) survey, designed to track trends in local business sentiment over time. This survey was presented to a random sample of MerchantCircle members between February 9th and February 16th, 2010. 11,013 completed responses came in during this period and there were no incentives offered to complete the survey. 

Read the full Merchant Confidence Index press release.

State of the U.S. Economy: a mixed bag

• 27.8% of local merchants surveyed said today's economy is "somewhat" or "significantly" improved


• 30.7% of local merchants surveyed said today's economy is "about the same"


• 41.5% of local merchants surveyed said today's economy is "somewhat" or "much" weaker

Sales revenue expectations: local merchants are optimistic

• Nearly 50% of local merchants surveyed expect sales revenues to "somewhat" or "significantly" improve over the next three months.  This represents a 23% increase over our Q4 2009 survey results (39.9% responded this way in Q4 2009)


• 17.3% of local merchants surveyed expect sales revenues to decline "somewhat" or "significantly".

Marketing expectations: investment expected to remain flat

• 46.3% of local merchants surveyed expect their marketing expenditures to remain flat over the next three months


• 29.2% of local merchants surveyed expect to increase marketing spend (up 2.6% nominally from Q4 2009)


• 24.5% of local merchants surveyed expect to cut marketing investment (down 1.2% nominally from Q4 2009)

Hiring expectations: headcount inching up

• 17.1% of local merchants surveyed expect to increase headcount over the next three months.  This represents a 16% increase over Q4 2009 responses (14.7% responded this way in Q4 2009).


• 11.5% local merchants surveyed expect to reduce headcount over the next three months.  This represents a 17% decrease versus Q4 2009 responses (13.4% responded this way in Q4 2009).

What do you think?  Stay tuned for more insights as we dive into the data.  

In the meantime, if you're interested in survey data broken out by state, business category or business size, please email darren [at] merchantcircle.com.

Darren

MerchantCircle Marketing

Merchant Confidence Index (MCI) Survey Results - Q4 2009

Below are the results for our first Merchant Confidence Index (MCI) survey - designed to track trends in small business sentiment and habits over time. This survey was fielded online between October 29 - November 4 using MerchantCircle's member base. 12,190 total responses came in during this period and there were no incentives offered to complete the 16 question survey.

Read the press release here.















If you'd like a downloadable PDF version of the above slides - click here. We can also get you regional breakdowns on specific states and/or categories. Requests can be emailed at MCI@MerchantCircle.com.

thanks,
Community Relations

The Case for Using Stimulus Dollars to Help Out Small Business Owners

We've just completed research here at MerchantCircle in partnership with Professor Samuel D. Bornstein of Kean University School of Business and Jung I. Song, CPA of Bornstein & Song, CPAs & Consultants. The survey had some startling results that we hope to use to influence legislation that will immediately help small business owners in and around California.

Our study shows that a 2nd Wave of Foreclosures in California will dwarf the subprime crisis and threatens more that 2.1 million jobs from business owners who refinanced their homes to pay for business expenses. You can read our study results and summary here. Our survey and answers from small business owners are below.

As first steps towards getting coverage on the ongoing crisis to help out small business owners, BusinessWeek (click here to read) and KXTV News 10 in Sacramento (click here to see the story) have already used our findings in their stories.

It’s a particularly troubling issue for small business owners that will further extend the economic difficulties in California. We hope to influence California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Assembly Member Manuel Perez, who will lead a new Assembly task force charged with maximizing the impact of federal economic stimulus dollars: (SERJ) Stimulus, Economic Recovery, and Jobs Task Force.



















Sincerely,
Community Relations