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People wear protective face masks in front of Starbucks in Union Square as the city resumes Phase 4 reopening after restrictions were imposed in New York City on September 29, 2020 to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Noam Galai | Getty Images

Starbucks announced on Wednesday that it expects to meet its long-term growth targets in 2023 and 2024 with adjusted earnings per share growth of 10% to 12%.

CFO Pat Grismer informed investors on Wednesday at his biennial Investor Day that the forecast for sustained long-term sales growth had been raised slightly to 8% to 10%. At its last investor meeting in 2018, the company expected adjusted earnings per share to grow at least 10% per year and long-term consolidated revenue growth of 7% to 9%.

In fiscal 2021, Starbucks expects adjusted earnings per share of $ 2.70 to $ 2.90 as the company and the wider economy rebound from the coronavirus pandemic. Starbucks is forecasting more than 20% growth through fiscal 2022 as it has weaker earnings growth.

The forecasts assume that Starbucks will not experience additional business interruptions and stable exchange rates.

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A number of shops along the Munjoy Hill base had open signs and were operational as part of a small business on Saturday November 28, 2015.

Gift Souza | Portland Press Herald | Getty Images

With the Christmas shopping going on this weekend, it is uncertain how Small Business Saturday November 28th will move the needle and help the millions of Main Street business owners struggling to survive. According to a survey on Small Business Saturday conducted by SurveyMonkey and CNBC, 43% of shoppers plan to spend less this holiday season than they did in 2019, and only 6% plan to spend the most money on Small Business Saturday.

The national study, published on Friday November 16-18, interviewed 3,122 people aged 18 to over 65. The survey was conducted on the SurveyMonkey online platform and was based on the survey method.

This could be a premonition for small business owners who are counting on Christmas sales to make up for declining revenues. Many are on the verge of bankruptcy due to the coronavirus pandemic that has brought normal business operations down. More standstills could soon occur if Covid-19 infections increase in the US

“It could be devastating to small businesses relying on this blockbuster sales event,” said Laura Wronski, a SurveyMonkey researcher who worked on the CNBC survey.

According to data from CNBC | SurveyMonkey plans a significant percentage of Americans to spend less on Christmas gifts this year than they did in 2019.

About three in four (75%) small business owners said they needed vacation spending to get back to normal in order to stay in business in 2021, and nearly half (46%) said they needed above-average spending Express, according to Americans Shop Small Impact Study.

The economic impact of this sales event is significant. Small businesses benefit from higher sales during the busy holiday season, which in turn benefits the communities in which they are located. According to American Express, 67 cents of every dollar spent in a small business – be it a retail store, restaurant, or something else – stays in the community.

It is estimated that 110 million people attended Small Business Saturday last year, and American Express posted a record $ 19.6 billion in revenue that helped make Small Business Saturday in response to the Great Recession to accomplish.

While customers may be throttling their spending in 2020, the CNBC / SurveyMonkey survey found that 30% of customers plan to patronize a small business for small business on Saturday. That is 9% less than in the previous year.

Surprisingly, 39% of all activities are done in person, 25% online, and 34% both. One percent of respondents did not answer the question, according to the survey. These numbers differ significantly from last year, when 8% planned to shop online, 58% in person, and 33% both.

Strategies in the Covid Economy

Given the many challenges small business owners face, experts share tips on how to increase sales on this important shopping day.

Most agree that the best strategies include: increasing the company’s online sales presence; Implementation of contactless transactions; Introduction of local delivery; Create customer gift lists as well as set up a number of new security protocols in stores.

“The most important thing small businesses need to do to increase sales on Small Business Saturday is prioritizing health and safety for their customers,” said Nick Starai, CSO of NMI, the payments platform that powers 140,000 merchants and behind The Backdrops are used to activate Payment Activators for Apple Pay and Google Pay. “No. 2 is the introduction of contactless payment systems,” he added.

“Our customer surveys show that this is what consumers are looking for. They want to feel more secure in small store environments. Many believe that wholesalers have more safety and health protocols than small businesses. Entrepreneurs need to change that perception.”

As he explains, there are simple things business owners can do like have hand sanitizer at the checkout, use floor markings for social distancing, have employees wear facial tags, and disinfect checkout systems between customers that go a long way in increasing consumer confidence.

Gary Huether Jr., an entrepreneur in the restaurant business – an industry hard hit by the pandemic – has taken many steps to prepare for Small Business Saturday in hopes of a boost in sales.

“We have had some of the toughest constraints in any industry since the coronavirus crisis began and we hope our customers will join us this weekend with indoor or take-out dining,” said Huether, President and Co-Founder of Aroogas Grille House & Sports Bar, franchisor from 18 locations in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Gary Huether Jr., President and CEO of Aroogas Grille House & Sports Bar, hopes Saturday’s sales will drive sales for small businesses.

To attract businesses to the shopping vacation, the company integrated direct deliveries on its website so guests can use Agrooga’s loyalty and gift cards for their purchases. A mobile app for take-away and direct deliveries was also introduced, which enables contactless payment.

“We’ve been in a whirlwind, facing different restrictions that vary from state to state. Some of our store sales have decreased by 20% to 30%,” he said, noting that the company had sales of over the past year Raised $ 40 million. “We hope that our loyal customers will use Small Business Saturday to help small businesses, not big retailers.”

Andy Shalal, CEO and founder of Busboys and Poets, a group of restaurants, cultural centers and bookstores in the DC metropolitan area, hopes supporting the community will help Main Street this season’s vacation. He keeps seeing customers come back to take away and book deliveries.

“Small businesses drive the mood in communities across America. People are realizing how important they are to the local economy.”

Firms like Shopify and Facebook are aware of their valuable contributions and are looking to help small businesses this weekend and throughout the holiday shopping season.

Shopify announced the #GiftBetter Guide, a one-stop shop that selects over 150 hand-picked gifts from curators like artist and floral designer Maurice Harris. Pro skater and entrepreneur Michelle Steilen; world famous chef Matty Matheson; and actress and founder, Ally Maki, to name a few.

Realizing that the black community was particularly hard hit, she also launched the Black Business Directory, which shoppers can use to discover and shop from Black Shopify merchants. Facebook took a similar approach with its #BuyBlack Friday program. Encouraging people to support and shop from black-owned businesses during the holidays and beyond.

The 2020 holiday season looks a little different this year, given the global pandemic that has accelerated digital transformation almost overnight for many retailers. More than ever, consumers are flocking to online shopping for vacation shopping. In fact, consumers spent $ 9 billion on U.S. retail websites on Black Friday – a 22% increase from the previous record of $ 7.4 billion on Black Friday 2019.

For cyber criminals, the sudden move to e-commerce is a gold rush for both buyers and retailers. According to the FBI, cybercrime has increased by 400% this year. Increasingly savvy cybercriminals are employing tactics such as “e-skimming attacks,” which involve injecting malicious code into the payment processing pages of websites to remove credit cards and account credentials from customers. Magecart is one of the most famous groups Behind this activity are the consistent expansion of their skills and tactics to infiltrate e-commerce applications, evade detection, and sell sensitive card data.

What does it all mean for consumers? This could mean that credit card details are currently up for sale on dark web forums without buyers ever noticing. In fact, VMware Carbon Black’s recent investigation on dark web forums found that credit card information was available for sale on the dark web for as little as $ 10 per high balance card. Similarly, PayPal accounts sell for $ 2 to $ 10 each, with prices varying based on account availability.

The reality is that vacation hacking poses a serious significant risk for consumers and a Herculean challenge for retailers. The good news is that there are ways to stay ahead of attackers through cyber self-defense. Here are some tips that both consumers and retailers can use to ensure this year’s online shopping experience is as seamless and secure as possible:

How buyers can protect against cybercrime

Shop with a VPN: The use of virtual private networks (VPNs) has grown in popularity over the years for the simple reason that they are effective. VPNs help to hide network traffic so that attackers can more easily see what you are doing online. Activating a VPN before your next online shopping spree can go a long way in preventing attackers from accessing your information.

Keep the software up to date: One of the most common attack vectors hackers can use is targeting older versions of software with known vulnerabilities that they can exploit. By updating all software and applications on your devices before you go shopping, you can protect your device from being exploited.

Use a nextGen antivirus: Using a modern antivirus solution is fundamental to staying safe in an age of unparalleled hacking sophistication. Contrary to popular belief, this also applies to Apple devices.

Shop at home on a secure network: Public WiFi is always something to beware of, but the risk increases significantly with online transactions and credit card information. Any Christmas shopping on a network that is not your own should be avoided as public WiFi networks are often watering holes for malicious actors who want to monitor traffic and steal valuable data.

Use multifactor authentication: Just as you have both a house key and an alarm code to protect the integrity of your house, you can protect yourself from cybercrime with a password and an authentication device.

Click carefully: From phishing emails and texts promoting fake sales directing you to fake websites designed to steal your credit card, to exposing your details to unsecured retail websites, every click counts. Think before you click is always important, but when attackers are pulling out all the stops to deceive you, as they usually do during the holiday shopping season, taking the time to evaluate links and websites before you go is imperative give them data. Remember R2’s rule: read the headers, for which the response and return paths must be identical.

For retailers: visibility is key

One of the biggest security challenges for retailers is the breadth of the attack surface. The move to online retail practices has expanded the methods that cybercriminals can use to breach systems, and securing customer data requires the latest in technology and practices. Retailers need to ensure the integrity of end-user and point-of-sale (POS) systems while monitoring network activity for both preventative and forensic measures in the event of an attack. Here’s how:

Integrate network intrusion detection systems with endpoint detection systems: Retailers should be assured that endpoint detection systems communicate with intrusion detection systems. This action ensures that defenders have the full picture if or when attacks occur.

Establish visibility and data streams: Getting real-time data from endpoints and other systems interacting with a company’s network, e.g. B. Retail websites is an essential function. This data can then be used to prevent network intrusions or the delivery of harmful malware such as Magecart skimmers. If this option is not enabled, criminals can use these attack vectors to steal valuable payment information such as credit card numbers, names, and physical addresses and email addresses.

Keep the software up to date: Hardening is a must. Retailers should ensure that all applications are kept up-to-date through patch management and vulnerability prioritization. You should also conduct regular code integrity checks and implement firewalls as additional defense.

Microsegment: Using microsegmentation means separating networks and tools from one another in terms of connectivity. Using this technique protects retailers from cybercrime by reducing the ability of hackers to move within and between systems once a particular component has been breached.

There is no doubt that vacation shopping will be a bit different for all of us than in previous years. The risk of cyber attacks is higher than ever as cyber criminals use new and sophisticated attacks. These malicious actors remain serial opportunists, and the swift move to online shopping has proven a boon to their criminal operations. The cyber crime wave of 2020 is metastatic. The increased vigilance of shoppers as well as proactive security measures by retailers can have a safe holiday season ahead of them. Cybersecurity is a 2020 executive function.

By Tom Kellermann, Head of Cybersecurity Strategy, VMware Carbon Black and a member of CNBC’s Technology Executive Council

Small business confidence is down after the election of former Vice President Joseph Biden, according to CNBC Q4 | SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey has fallen to an all-time low.

With a confidence index of 48, Main Street’s outlook is now below the second quarter of this year (49) when lockdowns increased across the country amid the first wave of Covid-19. That Q2 number was the all-time low prior to the recently completed survey, which was conducted November 10-17 of more than 2,200 small business owners nationally using the SurveyMonkey platform.

Since CNBC began conducting the survey in 2017, the confidence index has been 62 and never dropped below 50 through 2020. While a further surge in coronavirus cases continues to hit major streets across the country and no progress has been made during business stimulus talks in Washington, DC, problems small business owners face escalate, key questions in the confidence index relate to Main Street- Tax and regulatory outlook and responses from small business owners are heavily skewed by their political leanings – small businesses. Business demographics are generally conservative. About 60% of small business owners identify as Republicans, according to SurveyMonkey.

The Q4 CNBC | SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey shows the weight of post-presidential political bias in relation to small business prospects.

CNBC | SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey, Q4 2020

Fifty-three percent of small business owners said tax policies will have a negative impact on their business in the next 12 months, while 49 percent said government regulation will have a negative impact. Because of party affiliation, the gap is wide. Among Republicans, 75% said tax policy will be negative and 72% said it will be negative. Those numbers drop to 15% (taxes) and 11% (regulations) among Democrats. These are the highest percentages of responding to “adverse effects” over the four years of the survey.

Politics and Small Business

“The immediate shift in forward-looking sentiment small business owners reported after the election shows how deeply politics is embedded in the public’s perception of the economy, and more specifically, how divided the country is,” said Laura Wronski, manager of research science at SurveyMonkey. “We’ve seen evidence of this every quarter, with Republican small business owners consistently reporting higher levels of trust than Democrats, but the election of Joe Biden is the first opportunity we’ve had to see if that changes if that changes President’s power would change parties – and it did dramatically. “

Republican respondents saw the small business confidence index drop to 42 from 57 in the third quarter; Democratic confidence rose from 46 to 58. The Republican business owner’s lowest trust rating to date was 54 in Q2 2020.

We’ve seen evidence of this every quarter, with Republican small business owners consistently reporting higher levels of trust than Democrats, but the election of Joe Biden is the first opportunity we’ve had to see if this would tip when the president’s power came down would switch parties – and it did dramatically.

Laura Wronski, SurveyMonkey Research Science Manager

Overall, the survey found that 34% of small business owners say Joe Biden is good for small businesses, while 55% say he is bad for small businesses. By parties, 89% of Republican small business owners say Biden will be bad for business, while 86% of Democrats say he will be good for Main Street.

Vronsky noted that part of quarterly small business confidence is that federal policy changes make owners assess what things will be like a year from now, and that these questions are fraught with great uncertainty at any moment in time after the elections, before the new government takes power and before its political agenda is fully worked out.

“We don’t yet know how Biden will work with Republican leaders to implement his agenda, and we don’t even know what his specific policy proposals will be, so we’re really waiting and this lack of security is always a difficult one for small business owners Situation, “she said.

Divided government can be good for Main Street

With the Senate races in Georgia still to be decided in January and control of the Senate to be gained, it remains to be seen how much political capital the Democratic Party will have by winning the White House. The stock market continued to rebound on the belief that a divided government is good for business and will limit a President Biden’s ability to lift Trump’s tax cuts. Experts and small business owners say there is reason to believe Main Street will perform well under a divided federal government.

“If we do have a Republican-controlled Senate, many consider it a win-win scenario,” said Tony Nitti, a federal tax partner at RubinBrown who works with many entrepreneurs. “Customers viewed the election as sort of ‘Sophie’s Choice’: they preferred the stability and possible pandemic response of a Biden presidency, but wanted the tax regime of Trump’s second term. With these results there is a bit of ‘Best’,” Nitti said, stating that a Biden administration could be more thoughtful and decisive in addressing the pandemic and that the Republican-controlled Senate will keep any significant tax increases in check.

“In a scenario with divided governments and the way things are going in the house, it will be very difficult to collect taxes, especially for small businesses,” said Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. “The house’s margins will be so tight when it comes to majority control.”

Kerrigan noted that for much of the Obama presidency, the environment was one of divided government and that access to capital for small businesses increased. “The great recession opened up opportunities for bipartisan collaboration, and one of those areas affected was access to capital and the need to encourage new business startups as more businesses were closed than they were started. The Obama administration took an early interest and leadership Investment crowdfunding legal, along with other key elements of the Jumpstart our Businesses Act (JOBS Act), which has had a positive impact on capital markets to date, “she said.

Kerrigan said small business owners are busy people and, unlike Wall Street, they don’t necessarily follow the nuances of divided government. “During the campaign, they read or heard of Biden policies that could affect their business, from taxes to workplace regulations and more, and remain concerned about potential new costs in addition to their current challenges. It is not surprising that they have confidence in the immediate situation. The consequences of the elections have fallen, “she added.

However, she expects the confidence gap to narrow, although it will take some time as more conservative entrepreneurs are able to absorb and process information about the new political reality and see that of a divided government Actions taken do not reflect some of the more “intrusive policies” in the Biden agenda.

Ravin Gandhi, founder and CEO of Chicago-based homeware manufacturer GMM Nonstick Coatings, said he was encouraged by the prospect. Infrastructure and a Covid Relief stimulus plan are both bipartisan needs, while taxes for businesses are likely to stay lower, which will help if the economy struggles to recover from the pandemic. He said the fact that Biden should “barely beat” Trump should also limit the left’s ability to overregulate. And for any company that imports or exports – using manufacturing overseas – an end to Trump’s trade wars is positive.

Covid Lockdowns and Small Businesses

According to the survey, small business owners largely (83%) support a new federal government stimulus package – including 76% of the Republican respondents and 96% of the Democratic respondents. Fifty percent of small business owners said direct payments to individuals should be included in any new incentive. 42% said mortgage / rental relief; 41% said they would extend the PPP loan program.

However, small business confidence fell from the last quarter solely due to forward-looking factors like taxes and regulation, Wronsky noted, not because of a crash in current business conditions like the confidence index saw earlier this year with the introduction of coronavirus restrictions.

“There will be no national shutdown policy,” said Kerrigan. “President-elect Biden has a mix of advisors on the Covid-19 issue, several of whom say our economy can continue to ‘stay open’ and that it can be done safely with the right precautions. In addition, the majority of democrats would Governors also oppose this top-down approach. “

Small business owners’ assessment of current business conditions was at least stable from Q3 to Q4 and even rose slightly for some measures, including more business owners who described the conditions as “good” and less than bad. Those expecting higher revenues next year – and leading recent sales and demand increases – were also more numerous in the fourth quarter, while the hiring outlook was more or less stable from the previous quarter.

“That’s pretty remarkable when you consider how long so many companies have had to work from home to cope with lower demand, adopt new policies and security procedures, and everything else they’ve had to deal with thanks to the pandemic,” said Vronsky.

The CNBC | SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey for the fourth quarter of 2020 was conducted by more than 2,200 small business owners between November 10 and November 10. 17. The survey will be conducted quarterly through the SurveyMonkey online platform and will be based on the survey methodology. The Small Business Confidence Index is a 100-point assessment based on answers to eight key questions. A value of zero indicates no confidence, and a value of 100 indicates perfect confidence. The modeled error estimate for this survey is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.