Pic: Google
As more US Black businesses come online, creating new pathways for economic opportunity and generational wealth in their community, Google kicked off the first day of Black History Month by shining a light on Black-owned businesses, big and small, and honour their resilience and ingenuity.
It created a Black-owned business attribute on its ‘shopping’ tab, making it easier to find and support Black businesses.
In the past 12 months, Google search interest for ‘black owned businesses’ has skyrocketed 600 per cent based on Google Trends data comparing January-December 2019 to January-December 2020.
“We want to make it easier for people to support and spend dollars with the Black businesses they love. Starting today [1 February], we’re extending the Black-owned attribute to Google’s Shopping tab, so people can easily identify and buy from Black-owned businesses on Google,” a blog post on Google’s website said.
Business owners can add the Black-owned attribute by visiting the Google Merchant Help Centre. The feature will become visible to shoppers and available to all US Google Merchants in coming months.
This update builds on the Black-owned business attribute Google launched across Google Search and Maps last summer and is another way people can shop with Black businesses across Google’s products and platforms.
Reports have shown that 41 per cent of Black-owned businesses—about 440,000—have been shuttered due to COVID-19.
Through its partnership with Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), over $30 million in loans and Google.org grants to support Black-owned businesses and community lenders have been distributed to local organizations.
In addition to financial support, Google recently expanded the Grow with Google Digital Coaches programme to 20 US cities to provide 50,000 additional Black-owned businesses with mentorship, networking and training they need to grow.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
As more US Black businesses come online, creating new pathways for economic opportunity and generational wealth in their community, Google kicked off the first day of Black History Month by shining a light on Black-owned businesses, big and small, and honour their resilience and ingenuity. It created a Black-owned business attribute on its 'shopping' tab.