Real shopsReal ownersBuy directFree to list, since 2006
Sold by a human Est. 2006 Always free to list

Small businesses make a town worth living in.

Real shops. Real owners. Buy direct. A directory of independent small businesses run by people with names, stories, and a door you can knock on. Find one you love, then buy from their own site. We never touch the sale.

Browse the businesses Join the list
3 businesses listed · zero fees, ever
LeatherStuff
Newest listing
LeatherStuff
Handmade leather products made in the USA.
Why we do this

Every town has one.

Brevard, North Carolina has a toy store people drive two hours for. Ann Arbor has a deli. Portland has a bookstore the size of a city block.

A place that has been there forever, run by someone who knows your name, that no spreadsheet would ever have built. Small businesses are what make a community somewhere instead of anywhere. They bring the variety we are losing as everything becomes analytics and cost-cutting, and they are disappearing, because the market rewards scale and they do not have it.

We cannot give them scale. We can give them each other. ShopSmallBusiness.com is a place where small businesses work together, and where the rest of us can find them and buy from them directly. Started in 2006 for two shops in Atlanta that could not afford marketing on their own. Still going.

How it works

Three steps. No table fee.

Listing is free and always will be. You bring the story, we bring the shoppers who came looking for exactly you.

Step 1

Apply

Tell us who you are, what you make or sell, and where. We read every one by hand. If you're independent and a real person runs the place, you're in.

Takes about ten minutes.
Step 2

Tell the story

Your name, your face, how you got here. Add a short video if you like. Shoppers buy from people, not SKUs, so this is the part that sells.

We'll send a 5-question prompt to make it painless.
Step 3

Wear the mark

Put the badge on your site, your packaging, your counter. It tells shoppers the owner is in the building and the sale goes to you.

Listed on ShopSmallBusiness.com
The businesses

Who's here

Every card has an owner's name on it. "Meet the owner" for the story, "Buy direct" to go straight to their shop.

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Why direct

The marketplace takes more than half. We take none.

A typical third-party seller now gives up more than half of every sale in marketplace fees, fulfillment and ads. When you buy direct, the owner keeps the whole price tag. That's the whole idea.

Marketplace keeps50%+
We keep0%
Owner keepsThe rest
Free, forever
For businesses

Put your name on the door.

Independently owned, run by a real person, with your own site where people buy direct. That's the whole test.

  • Your own page with your name, story and a Buy Direct button
  • A spot in the weekly email to shoppers
  • Nothing taken from your sales, ever
Listed
Everything above
Free
Supporter
Video, decal, stickers, priority in the email
$100/yr
Featured
A produced owner story, home-page spot
$250/yr
Add your business Support, not rank. How support works
Everyone's invited
The list

Insider intel, once a week.

A handful of small businesses worth buying from, with the owner's name and the direct link. No deals, no coupons. An insiders list anyone can join; that's the point.

One email a week through the holidays. No deals, no coupons, no selling your address.
The wall

Kept open by

Chip in any amount
Your name here