Amex Shop Small Promotion: Spend $30, Get $10

The American Express Shop Small promotion is back, and it runs through the holiday season.

If the offer shows up on your American Express card, you can register for it. Once you’re registered, you’ll earn a $10 credit when you spend $30 (all figures in CAD) in-store at Shop Small merchants. You can earn the credit up to five times, for a total of up to $50 in statement credits per card.

Amex Shop Small: Spend $30, Get $10

You can earn up to $50 in statement credits per card with the newest Shop Small promotion, which is structured as “Spend $30, Get $10,” up to five times.

The offer is targeted, so check each American Express card you hold. If you can’t find the offer on a card, that card isn’t eligible.

To register for Shop Small, sign in to your card account and go to the Amex Offers section.

If your card has the Shop Small offer available, select it to register your card, and you’re all set.

Once you’ve registered, you can take advantage of the “Spend $30, Get $10” offer up to five times in-store at participating Shop Small merchants in Canada, for a total of up to $50 in statement credits.

Enrollment is limited, so it’s worth registering your cards as soon as possible before it fills up.

The offer runs from November 9, 2026, to January 4, 2027. Purchases you make before you register don’t count, so register first and shop second.

On a $30 purchase, the $10 credit works out to 33% back, on top of the regular rewards your card earns on the purchase.

How Does Amex Shop Small Work?

Once you’ve loaded up the Shop Small offer, you can use the Amex Shop Small Map to look up the participating retailers by filtering for the “Shop Small” icon.

You’ll find a list of participating locations in your city, which are all marked with a blue dot or location marker.

Only merchants with the Shop Small icon on the map count. Amex updates the map from time to time, so it may not be entirely accurate.

The Shop Small promotion is intended to reward you for shopping five separate times at five different Shop Small retailers. To that end, the terms state:

To be eligible for a $10 (CAD) statement credit a qualifying purchase of at least $30 (CAD) in a single transaction, after taxes, must be charged to your registered Card in store at up to 5 different eligible small merchant location(s) in Canada during the offer period and subsequently posted to your account. […] A qualifying purchase of at least $30 (CAD) in a single transaction that is made directly at a different participating business or different location of the same participating business will qualify for one $10 (CAD) statement credit, up to a total of 5 statement credits or a maximum of $50 (CAD) in statement credits per registered Card during the offer period. One or more purchases made directly at the same business location will only be eligible to qualify for one $10 (CAD) statement credit.

Therefore, you’ll most likely need to shop with five separate Shop Small merchants to get the full $50 in statement credits. A different location of the same business also counts as a separate merchant.

In-store purchases only

Unlike some past rounds, this one only counts purchases you make in person. A few kinds of transactions don’t qualify:

• Online, in-app, and phone orders: excluded, even at a participating merchant
• Third parties: purchases through resellers, delivery services, or other intermediaries don’t count
• Phone card readers: if the merchant takes your payment on a card reader attached to a mobile phone, the purchase doesn’t count
• Foreign currency: purchases must be in Canadian dollars

Plenty of small shops and market stalls take payment on a reader attached to a phone, so it’s worth a look at the terminal before you pay.

The statement credit typically posts within 30 days of your purchase, but it can take up to 90 days after the offer ends. If you return the purchase, the credit is reversed.

Splitting larger purchases

If you or your household members hold multiple American Express cards with the offer and have registered all of them, you could always split up a larger transaction into multiple payments on separate cards, thus triggering one of the five $10 credits for each card used.

Each payment needs to be at least $30 after taxes, so a $90 dinner bill could trigger three credits across three registered cards.

If you happen to overburden your cashier or waiter during the process of splitting up a large bill, remember to leave a generous tip (perhaps using yet another American Express card from your pack).

Canadian Shop Small offers go back to at least 2018. Until early 2020, they ran city by city in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal, and were typically worth $5 back at up to five shops, for $25 per card.

Since the first nationwide round in 2020, these are the rounds we’ve tracked:

Two patterns stand out. Scotiabank’s fall round has been $10 back on $30, up to five times, every year since 2023, and this round matches it exactly.

The rounds for Amex’s own cards have moved around a lot more. They paid up to $50 per card in 2020, 2021, and fall 2024, but this past June’s round topped out at just $10.

Conclusion

American Express Shop Small has returned yet again, allowing you to earn up to $50 in statement credits per card.

With a $30 minimum and nearly two months of holiday shopping in the window, this round lines up well with gifts from independent shops in your neighbourhood. If you hold more than one Amex card with the offer in your household, the credits add up quickly.

This is the fourth fall in a row with this exact offer, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see it back next November.

Go forth and register all the eligible American Express cards you can get your hands on, and then get spending.