‘A lifeline’: As sales vanished amid the pandemic, here’s how small businesses shifted to Amazon, Etsy to survive
CLOSE Blake Smith, owner of the Admiral Twin Drive-In in Tulsa, Oklahoma shares how his small business was able to thrive during the pandemic. USA TODAYAt the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Jean Jenner knew just what to do to save his French Bakery & Pastry Shop.Just as evaporating sales forced him to shutter his Ormond Beach, Florida, storefront, his online gourmet flour and yeast business unexpectedly took off, effectively lighting the road to survival for his 37-year-old business.Serendipitously, Jenner’s online side business helped fuel the bake-at-home craze that gave cooped-up Americans a creative outlet to soothe pandemic-frayed nerves. In just a few short weeks, internet sales mushroomed from about $1,000 a month to more than $1,000 a day.Jenner built his virtual shop on Etsy, and the business has been thriving since.Etsy gifts: 20 thoughtful Valentine’s Day gifts from Etsy everyone will loveSmall biz owners: Do these 2 things to get more sales now“If in January 2020 you told me that in two months’ time my shop would be selling nothing but I’d be making over $100,000 on Etsy, I’d tell you, you were nuts,” Jenner told me. “I had never even heard of Etsy.”Like Jenner, tens of thousands of
