Seven out of 10 merchants responding to a recent report indicated that today's economy was the same or better than it has been over the last 12 months, according to a recent survey of nearly 12,000 local merchants by MerchantCircle, a social network of business owners.

Merchants in California and Texas were slightly more optimistic than their counterparts in other states, with 30.7 percent of California merchants and 29.3 percent of Texas merchants saying the economy is better now than it has been over the past 12 months, compared with 27.8 percent nationally.

When merchants were asked to rate today's current economy versus the past 12 months, 27.8 percent said it was “somewhat” or “significantly” improved, while 30.7 percent said it was “about the same;” 22.6 percent said the economy was “somewhat weaker” today and 18.9 percent said it was “much weaker.”

Nearly 50 percent of local merchants surveyed expect an increase in sales revenue to “somewhat” or “significantly” improve over the next 3 months. This marks a nearly 10 percent increase over November 2009.

Currently, 17.1 percent of small businesses expect to add employees over the next 3 months compared with 14.7 percent in November 2009, a 16 percent increase. In addition, 11.5 percent expect to reduce head count over the 3 three months versus 13.4 in November, 2009, a 17 percent decrease.

The survey also showed that 46.3 percent of merchants expect their marketing expenditures to remain flat over the next 3 months while 29.2 percent expect to increase marketing spending, up 2.6 percent from November 2009; 24.5 percent expect to cut marketing expenditures over the next 3 months, down 1.2 percent from the last survey.

However, 58.8 percent of local merchants said credit availability had “worsened” or “significantly worsened” over the last 3 months, 36.7 percent said access to credit remained the same, and just 4.6 percent said it had “improved” or “significantly improved.”

Special Reports /

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