At Port Hopper, a gift shop on Commercial Street with a global theme, a small change has made a big difference.

This summer, shop owners expanded their hours — 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Mondays through Saturdays and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays — to offer a more consistent experience for customers.

The change has paid off with an increase in revenue.

“We started seeing the cruise ships that come in, or the river boats and all, that started coming in the morning,” said Adrin Morrison, a co-owner of Port Hopper. “We have one employee who works one day a week to give us just an early day, but besides that, we’re here every day.”

“We were catering to tourism, because that’s kind of what this area is,” he added. “We’re also making sure that people who live here have something that they can come in.”

The Lonely Crab, a record shop near Port Hopper on Commercial Street, also expanded operations during the summer. “My whole reasoning behind the shift can be summed up as, ‘One must squeeze the sponge when the sponge is wet,’” Chris Lamb, the shop’s owner, said.

For many small businesses in downtown Astoria that rely on a blend of visitors and locals, providing a consistent experience when it comes to hours of operation and service can be a key ingredient of success. Even marginal shifts in seasonal foot traffic downtown can have an important impact on sales.

Kevin Leahy, the executive director of Clatsop Economic Development Resources and the director of the Clatsop Community College Small Business Development Center, which advises local businesses, stresses the importance of consistent customer engagement.

He recognizes that some businesses are not able to easily expand hours — even in the small way Port Hopper did — but can stay attuned to customers, especially locals, through social media, websites, email and other outreach.

“It’s easy to say, expand your hours, but if you’re the only one working in your business, that’s difficult,” Leahy said.

Adrin and Eric Morrison, who opened Port Hopper last year, had the flexibility to expand.

“We kind of have the luxury where, you know, we don’t have children. We have two cats at home. That’s it. We don’t have a lot of home life that’s begging us to kind of get over there,” Adrin Morrison said. “So we realize not everyone has that. But yeah, from what we’ve seen from our hours and being consistent, it’s paid off.”