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Amplifying the power of Small Business Saturday and beyond with PartyRock
by AWS Editorial Team | 21 Nov 2024 | Thought Leadership
With festivities almost in full swing, November 30 marks this year’s Small Business Saturday—a day that champions the big impact small businesses have on communities and encourages consumer support. Amid the busiest shopping season, we explore how small business owners can quickly boost their value with generative AI tools and gear up for growth long after holiday shopping wraps up.
It's clear that small businesses spread more than holiday cheer; they’re the backbone of communities and the American economy. Approximately 40 percent of the United States’ gross domestic output (GDP) comes from small businesses alone. And when dollars stay within communities, more money goes back into creating thriving neighborhoods.
Founded in 2010 by American Express as a follow-on to Black Friday, the annual American tradition of Small Business Saturday shows appreciation for local businesses and encourages customers to shop small. It has since become a key date in the holiday calendar—last year U.S. consumers spent an estimated US$17 billion just on Small Business Saturday, according to a consumer insights survey commissioned by American Express. But as the shopping season ramps up and consumers rally their support, many businesses owners are looking for ways to meet higher demand while maximizing growth opportunities.
AWS AI expert and tech evangelist Dr. Nashlie Sephus has been meeting small business entrepreneurs to show them just how easy it is to improve productivity and efficiency with generative AI. From tailoring product recommendations to accelerating marketing tasks, find out how free tools like PartyRock can give the gift of game-changing apps in minutes.
Creating personalized product recommendations
Every business wants to delight customers, but competing demands make it tough to deliver exceptional service every time—especially in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Peace, Love, and Happiness Club plant shop owners Neil Silverman and John Tseng pride themselves on matching customers with the plant species that best suit their lifestyles and living situations. However, they can spend hours helping customers decipher from over 10,000 plants and sharing care instructions.
Using PartyRock, they quickly created two apps: a “Plant Pal” app that helps customers find the right plant for them in seconds and an “Exotic Gardeners Companion” app that produces how-to-guides on caring for new purchases. Customers just provide information about their home environment and skill level, and then type in plant names for detailed care tips. This means the owners can serve more customers while freeing up time to nurture retail business growth.
Staying ahead of industry developments
For Blue Dot Kitchen founder Travis Bettinson, transparent and authentic customer communications are critical to building brand trust. The small business owner is on a mission to build a market for regenerative, harvested kelp in a bid to create a more sustainable food system. Keeping up to date with the latest scientific research is important to realizing the company’s ambitions, but Bettinson found that the daily minutiae of running a business meant he rarely had the bandwidth.
Sephus showed him how PartyRock can significantly reduce the time spent digesting detailed reports. With the document upload function, he can surface key industry findings in seconds and share them with customers and stakeholders. The chatbot also enables him to ask questions to dive deeper into specific areas of research. Using generative AI drives more efficient operations while empowering Bettinson to keep his finger on the pulse for product benefits and growth opportunities.
Spotlighting the business online
Balancing multiple demands of running her business, Shaniqua Garcia needed a quick and simple way to improve online visibility of Pearl Salon Suites. Sephus revealed how she can create a tailored app with PartyRock to produce blogs relevant to each of her three main audience groups: beauty professionals looking to rent a space, customers searching for services, and potential franchisees.
Not only did the blogs cover different topics of interests to audience targets, but they also tied into Garcia’s business offering and included specific keywords. The result helped her build brand awareness by optimizing the website’s SEO, delivering custom content on demand.
Getting started with PartyRock
These are just a few examples of a wealth of ways generative AI can support companies' success this Small Business Saturday and beyond. As a free-to-use playground for Amazon Bedrock, anyone can solve day-to-day issues quickly with PartyRock. However, there are some important tips to keep in mind when building your app.
1. Identify the problems: There’s no need to be intimidated—you don’t need to be a technical expert! Start by understanding your pain points and work backward from there.
2. Experiment with prompts and parameters: The quality of your input determines the quality of the output, so you must be precise when asking the AI a question or giving instructions. You may need to play around with model outputs to see how they perform in different ways to get the results you’re seeking.
3. Double check the outputs: AI isn’t perfect and it can make mistakes. To promote responsible, accurate outcomes, make sure you have a human in the loop to check the information the AI provides and be clear with your intentions.
Feeling inspired to build your own AI app ahead of the festive rush? It’s not too late to unwrap the benefits. Learn more about the basic components and how to use prompts by taking the Introduction to PartyRock course on AWS Educate. Just create a free account and get ready to explore the possibilities of AI for your business.
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