A recent Web-Est survey about how market conditions affect small shops indicated that most shop owners feel business conditions for the small shop market are unchanged from the last six months compared to current sales and revenues.

Forty-one percent of the respondents stated business was the same as it had been most of last year, with no improvement, while 32 percent stated that conditions have worsened. Survey results showed that 27 percent of respondents believe that current market conditions have improved.

Fifty percent of respondents feel business is likely to return to “pre-economic downturn” conditions by early 2009. The survey was taken from May 10 to May 15 and included more than 800 shops, and 74 percent of the respondents identified themselves as having three or less employees.

For more information, visit www.web-est.com.