Shop small with AMEX and put cashback in your pocket this November

November is Shop Small month, a chance for Aussie shoppers to enjoy cashback offers on their AMEX cards, while supporting local small business.

The Shop Small campaign aims to promote shopping local, by offering cashback incentives to shoppers who head to small retailers, rather than big box stores this month.

To participate, shoppers need to first register their eligible AMEX card. Then, they can find local businesses on the ShopSmallMap to spend with. Every $20 spent will mean a $10 credit on the American Express card used to make the purchase.

Shoppers can claim the $10 cashback up to 10 times and only once at any given retailer.

Aussies can also pick up a Mozo Experts Choice Award winning AMEX credit card to participate with — AMEX bagged 7 awards across the Rewards, Retail Rewards, No Annual Fee and Balance Transfer categories.

The campaign comes at an opportune time — an AMEX study released to support the initiative found that larger businesses have recently been making gains among shoppers who usually prefer to shop at small local businesses.

78% of respondents in the study said small businesses had had a positive impact on their lives, but only a disproportionate 37% spent more time actually shopping at small businesses.

Part of this may come down to the fact that Aussie shoppers seem to think small businesses are disappearing — when in fact, the opposite is true, and shoppers may just be looking in the wrong places.

“Small businesses are no longer just bricks and mortar stores on the high street, but new digital start-ups, online boutique stores, and internet based services,” pointed out Katrina Konstas, Vice President Small Merchant, Global Merchant Services at American Express.

RELATED: Will your groceries score you a free flight? flybuys and Velocity team up

83% of shoppers surveyed believed small businesses were not lasting as long as they were 10 years ago, and 71% said there appeared to be fewer small businesses around these days.

But those numbers are a total contrast to the figures coming from the small business sector, where 85% of businesses are better or no worse off financially than they were last year and one in five aussies are currently planning to set up their own small business.

“With more than 2.1 million small businesses employing more than five million Australians, the sector accounts for 97% of all Australian businesses,” Federal Small Business Minister Michael McCormack said.

Card registration is open now, and the offer runs from November 1 2016, so get involved and save yourself a bundle while supporting local business.

If you’re not an American Express cardholder already, you can find them in our credit card comparison table, or take a look at the AMEX cards on offer here.