Small Businesses Expected to Feel the Love This Valentine's Day

Updated

Small Businesses Expected to Feel the Love This Valentine's Day

Credit Card Trends Signal Rosy February


NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Main Street florists, jewelers, and candy shops should feel the love this Valentine's Day, according to an analysis of credit card sales trends and other seasonal data conducted by CapTap, an online lending engine that connects America's small businesses quickly to the loans they need to grow and thrive.

While the annual outlook for small businesses remains thorny, CapTap projects that florists, candy shops and jewelry stores could see as much as a 20 percent boost in sales this month compared to February 2012. The National Retail Federation estimates $18.6 billion will be spent on Valentine's Day in total this year.

"February is a historically strong sales month for these small businesses and our data suggests the trend will continue this year," said Glenn Goldman, CEO of Capital Access Network (CAN). CapTap is powered by CAN's award-winning technology platform and proprietary algorithms. "But while this one month will give Main Street retailers a temporary boost, we don't expect they'll feel the love for too long. Due to soft consumer demand and the overly restrictive small business lending practices used by most banks, many worthy merchants will likely continue to struggle to grow their businesses this year."

CapTap examined thousands of daily credit card sales transactions from small businesses nationwide from January 2009 through January 2013. CapTap uses these and other meaningful risk and business performance data to provide access to small business loans, rather than overly relying on the business owners' personal credit scores. CapTap leverages CAN's risk models that were built using a proprietary database of more than 100,000 small-business transactions, spanning more than 650 industry categories and totaling nearly $3 billion in capital.

About CapTap

CapTap uses the power of technology and data to connect America's small businesses quickly to the loans that they need to grow. CapTap is powered by Capital Access Network's (CAN) unmatched small business finance experience. CAN has given small businesses access to nearly $3 billion in funding over the past 14 years, and has provided access to nearly $550 million in capital to small businesses in 2012. All business loans obtained through CapTap are made by WebBank, a Utah-chartered Industrial Bank, member FDIC. Learn more at CapTap.com.

About Capital Access Network

Since 1998, Capital Access Network, Inc. (CAN) has provided small businesses access to nearly $3 billion in working capital through its subsidiaries, NewLogic Business Loans, Inc. and AdvanceMe, Inc. CAN's award-winning technology platform automatically evaluates a multitude of business performance variables by integrating big data from firmographic, banking, and credit card processing sources with proprietary risk models built from over 100,000 transactions over multiple business cycles in over 650 SIC codes. This enables CAN to have unparalleled insight into the strength of the business and provide access to capital based on business performance rather than personal credit scores of the business owners. CAN also supports small business finance providers desiring more finance options for their own customers in the U.S. and internationally. All business loans obtained through CapTap and NewLogic Business Loans are made by WebBank, a Utah-chartered Industrial Bank, Member FDIC. Learn more at CapitalAccessNetwork.com.

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Kate Finnerty
Allison+Partners for CapTap
646.428.0635
kate.finnerty@allisonpr.com
or
Alexandra Gardell Kreuter
Allison+Partners for CapTap
646.428.0618
alexandra@allisonpr.com

KEYWORDS: United States North America New York

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