ABA Asks Members to Participate in Holiday Sales Survey

In an effort to assess how independent businesses fared this holiday season, the American Booksellers Association has teamed up with several other organizations representing independent businesses to conduct an Independent Business Holiday Sales Trends Survey. ABA is asking its bookseller-members to take a few moments now to complete the survey, which features just four simple questions and should take no longer than two minutes to complete. The deadline to submit the survey, which will help the groups plan future initiatives, is January 14.

The survey is an outgrowth of the Independent Trades Summit, where independent trade organizations met to discuss common goals and challenges specific to independent businesses and ways they could work together.

"We believe cooperation between independent trade associations and independent business owners is important for our survival and success," said ABA COO Oren Teicher. "Whether an independent is in the bookselling business or in the toy or flower industry, we all face many of the same challenges. This quick survey is a good first step in providing us with a more complete picture of how we're doing as a whole. We hope ABA members will take the few minutes required to fill out this short survey, as the more responses we get, the more valuable the data will be."

The survey is confidential and does not ask for a name or business name -- the participating associations will view only aggregate data and not individual responses.

Other groups participating in the survey are the American Independent Business Alliance; the Coalition of Independent Music Stores; the Gift & Home Trade Association; the Independent Florist Association; the National Bicycle Dealers Association; and the North American Retail Dealers Association.

Complete the Independent Business Holiday Sales Trends Survey now. --David Grogan