B.C. small business sales are among the worst in the country

B.C. small businesses are continuing to face headwinds, even while conditions look like they are improving in the rest of the country.

Xero, a global small business platform, released findings from its quarterly small business insights program today, based on sales data from 12,000 small businesses across the country.

While sales picked up in the rest of the country, they actually fell for B.C.’s small businesses.

“British Columbia recorded the weakest result of any region tracked,” wrote Xero in a press release.

B.C.’s small business sales fell 2.6 per cent year-over-year in the third quarter of 2026. Meanwhile, Alberta’s sales grew by 5.9 per cent, and Ontario’s by 2.2 per cent. Like B.C., the Maritime provinces saw small business sales fall by 1.4 per cent.

Nationally, sales rose by two per cent.

Xero said that the problem for B.C. owners is demand, rather than the cash flow squeeze seen in other parts of the country.

“B.C. is the outlier again this quarter. It had the weakest sales of any region tracked, but its businesses get paid faster than anyone else’s,” wrote Xero.

It added that the ongoing high prices at the gas pump are contributing to “headwinds” for small businesses, as they “find themselves squeezed from both sides should high prices remain.”

Further, businesses across the country are struggling due to the effects of the U.S-Canada trade war.

“No one wins from tariffs,” said Louise Southall, an economist for Xero.

“Consumers on both sides of the border pay more for the same goods, and exporters find it harder to make a sale against products that don’t carry the same tariff. The obvious response for Canadian exporters is to find new markets, but that takes time and isn’t a costless exercise. And it’s not just Canadians feeling it. U.S. businesses near the border are feeling the effects too.”

This follows a dismal second quarter of 2026, which saw B.C. business sales fall by 1.7 per cent from the year before.

Earlier this year, Daily Hive spoke with Hashem Aboulhosn, the chief growth officer at Merchant Growth, who discussed the “succession of challenges” small businesses have faced over the past several years.

There was the COVID pandemic that shut down parts of the economy and impacted consumer spending, high interest rates, a declining housing market, the first round of tariffs, the war in the Middle East, and now another round of tariffs.

Xero did find one silver lining for B.C. small businesses: they lead the country on getting paid, with the average payment coming in at just under 25 days. In Alberta, it is 28 days; in Ontario, 29; and in the Maritimes, 34 days.