From Market Square in Victoria to Water Street in St. John’s, Canadians coast to coast love colourful, vibrant shopping districts in search of products and services they can’t get anywhere else — a killer haircut, a favourite sandwich, or shoe repairs from a business that really knows what it’s doing.
Canadians love small businesses. Eighty-eight per cent of Canadians polled say they’re important to their communities,1 but the appreciation runs deeper than that. There’s an emotional connection. (Notice how a whole city can be bummed out when a beloved business closes.)
And right now, with small businesses facing ongoing economic uncertainty, their relationships with their customers are as important as ever. People may not always think about how their choices can help local owners, but now would be a great time to start, says Sarah Terpstra, co-owner of Russell’s Butcher and Deli in Toronto’s Roncesvalles Village.
“This whole shop local and being more aware of where you’re putting your money is awesome. Anything that will help small businesses survive this super tumultuous climate is super important,” Sarah says, calling small businesses the secret to making neighbourhoods that are “unique and an awesome place to live.”
The good news? According to research commissioned by Interac, nearly eight in 10 Canadians (79 per cent) agree that supporting local businesses feels more important than it did before recent trade disruptions. One way they can show their support is helping small businesses deal with a big headache: the high fees they often get charged for payment processing, depending on the payment method customers choose.
Interac Debit means support for small business
Out of all the challenges facing small-business owners, high transaction fees can be among the most harmful. Just ask Leandro Baldassarre, founder and owner of Famiglia Baldassarre, which is famous around Toronto for the fresh pasta it sells to restaurants and the public.
Leandro tallied up his transaction fees for one year and realized he was paying far more than he thought. He complained (“ranted,’’ in his words) about other payment methods’ high fees on social media. Now, he says, “If they know me, they pull out their card and say, ‘I know, you like debit.’
“If we’re talking about supporting Canadian businesses, Interac Debit is the way to go. Interac Debit is immensely more supportive to the business” than some other forms of payment.
Interac Debit offers merchants a low fee — often a flat fee, depending on the small business’s payment processing package — regardless of the price of the purchase. This helps limit the amount of transaction fees that a business has to pay. According to an eye-opening example from the Retail Council of Canada, a hypothetical $500 transaction can leave the merchant with a $10 fee to cover if the customer pays by credit card, versus 10 cents if they choose debit.2
The cumulative effect of more customers choosing Interac Debit can make a massive difference to a business’s bottom line, says Akim Acacia, who co-owns the Haitian restaurant Piklíz with his brother Abdel. “Let’s say everybody would pay by Interac Debit. It would have a big impact on our business — any small business,” says Akim, who also worries about his and his employees’ safety when handling cash. “We much prefer you pay by Interac [because] the fee is much cheaper for us.”
Akim notes that with Interac Debit, “We get paid faster as well.”
That’s great for cash flow, which small business owners have to think about all the time — because it can be make-or-break for their survival. Sarah thinks about cash flow “almost every waking hour of the day. And sometimes I wake up at night thinking about it too. That’s really fun.”
Sarah realizes most people don’t know how much lower the transaction fees can be for some forms of payment over others. (She admits that even she forgets in the midst of all the other things she needs to keep on top of.) But one thing is clear: Choosing Interac Debit, with its low fees — often a flat fee, depending on the small business’s payment processing package — can be a big help to a local business.
Sometimes, she says, Russell’s needs the proceeds from the previous day’s sales to pay for something essential, like wages or a repair.
As Leandro puts it, getting paid quickly “is peace of mind.”
Strong businesses support resilient neighbourhoods
When cash is flowing well and businesses are financially healthy, they contribute to neighbourhoods that are economically strong and vibrant. According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), for every dollar that Canadians spend at a local small business, 66 cents of every dollar stays in the local economy — a much higher amount than for other types of businesses, according to the CFIB’s research.3
For customers, choosing the low fees and fast payments of Interac Debit doesn’t just mean they’re contributing to the business’s bottom line and cash flow, they’re also potentially helping to circulate money within their home provinces.
To understand how this creates a positive economic impact, ask a local business owner what they would do if they had more cash on hand. Leandro says it often goes into boosting Famiglia Baldassarre’s productivity and its staff. “If I see a decent net at the end of a month or at the end of the year, I start to say, ‘OK, I could afford to upgrade this machine. We could afford a new staff member.” For many businesses, the inputs they spend money on are produced locally — Russell’s sources its meats predominantly from Ontario suppliers, for example.
Financially healthy small businesses also help fuel a healthy job market. As of 2023, small businesses employed 5.8 million Canadians — that’s 47 per cent of the private-sector labour force;4 it’s no exaggeration to say small businesses are the engine of job creation in Canada. To look at their impact another way, they’re responsible for almost 35 per cent of Canada’s GDP.5
Beyond their economic impact, small businesses contribute opportunities for their customers to enjoy unique experiences, services and products. If Sarah Terpstra and her husband Christoper hadn’t been able to make payroll thanks to the quick reimbursement they get from their Interac Debit sales, they may never have survived to provide Roncesvalles residents with top-quality meats from Ontario-raised animals. Without Interac Debit, the Acacia brothers may not have grown from a restaurant inside a café to a standalone restaurant providing Montreal’s Saint-Henri area with some of the most delicious Haitian griot and pikliz this side of Port-au-Prince. And Leandro Baldassarre’s pasta business is still benefiting from the improvement to his bottom line from convincing more of his customers to pay by Interac Debit, helping to ensure the noodles keep flowing for Toronto pasta lovers who line up for lunch at Famiglia Baldassarre on weekday afternoons.
All that helps explain why Interac, as a 100 per cent Canadian company, is committed to creating low-cost solutions for small businesses.
“For over 40 years, Interac has been committed to delivering payment solutions that are intuitive and help small businesses manage their bottom line” says Ted Bowman, Interac. “This dedication is reflected in the low transaction fees associated with Interac Debit and in the evolution of the Interac e-Transfer platform, which has been enhanced to better support the needs of small businesses.”
Sarah says the important thing to remember is that a small choice like your payment method can contribute to a huge difference for a local business — and for your local economy.
“Next time you go to shop at your local small businesses, think about what card you use. Think about the effect on the business and their cash flow and their ability to pay their staff more.”
It’s your money, Canada. Choose Interac Debit when shopping at your favourite small businesses.
[3] “When a consumer makes a purchase from a small Canadian retail business, 66 cents of every dollar [stays] within the local provincial economy.” CFIB
[4] Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)
