by ROB RETZLAFF || The past two years have been hell for small businesses in South Carolina and around the country. Lockdowns, retail and office closures, and lost revenue were devastating. Fortunately, as I have learned from the many businesses I have worked with in the Palmetto State, South Carolina small businesses are resilient. With some aid from Congress, millions of SC businesses embraced remote work, e-commerce, and home delivery. But as we begin 2022 and COVID challenges continue, Congress is considering sweeping antitrust legislation that attacks large digital platforms and, in doing so, jeopardizes the tools and products that many South Carolina businesses have come to know and rely on.
South Carolina is home to almost half a million small businesses, comprising 99.4 percent of all the businesses across the state. Research documents that small businesses who invested in digital tools before COVID-19 earned 50 percent more revenue and hired twice as many workers during the shutdowns compared to less digitally savvy businesses. Incredibly, digital tools were instrumental in helping 11 million small businesses keep their doors open. Google, Facebook, and Amazon – and Salesforce, GrubHub, Zoom, and Shopify – helped power these COVID lifelines.
These aren’t just statistics; they are real people. For three years, I’ve worked digitally-empowered small businesses across South Carolina, from a handmade jewelry store in Charleston to a live event ticketing marketplace in Greenville. I spend hours listening to small business owners share digital success stories with members of Congress every week. It’s obvious why they aren’t asking Congress to regulate digital platforms – because digital platforms and tools are helping their restaurants, garden centers, lighting companies, luggage stores, and countless other businesses succeed. Throughout COVID, digital tools have provided hope.
The risk of these antitrust bills to the livelihood of small businesses in South Carolina immeasurable. The consequences are real, and they will hurt. If Amazon cannot self-preference its warehouses, logistics, and shipping operations, then Amazon Prime doesn’t work, and small business sellers who operate through the platform cannot guarantee 2-day or same-day delivery. Additionally, if Google cannot self-preference Google Business Profile pages that businesses use to communicate critical information such as location, hours and health and safety information for free, then a search for a small business may take you to sites that are inaccurate or irrelevant (which hurts the business), or even dangerous to the user.
As the calendar turns to 2022 and COVID still remains a threat, South Carolina’s elected officials should double-down to help the Palmetto State’s restaurants, child care centers, and small businesses power through. But it is disingenuous to give aid with one hand while simultaneously undermining powerful small business platforms with the other, and that is precisely the result if Congress restricts how large tech platforms operate and help small businesses. If 2022 is the Year of Small Business and the Year of Bashing Big Tech, Congress will win headlines, but small businesses will be the collateral damage.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Rob Retzlaff is the executive director of the Connected Commerce Council, a non-profit organization representing 15,000 digitally-empowered small business members nationwide.
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