Source: Yelp / My Black Receipt
Black-owned businesses affected by the COVID-19 global pandemic are getting a boost from Yelp.
Today (Jun.18), Yelp officially announced its partnership with the movement Black Receipt. The two entities partnership comes on the eve of Juneteenth (Jun.19) and will see the launch of an opt-in attribute on the Yelp platform that will help users easily find Black-owned businesses to support. Black Receipt is a movement started to help “empower the Black community with economic independence by galvanizing consumers to spend $5 million at Black-owned businesses from Juneteenth (June 19) through Independence Day (July 4).”
Source: Yelp / My Black Receipt
Yelp recognizes that Black entrepreneurs were disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic with a staggering 40% drop in the number of working Black business owners, far greater than any other racial group. While this move doesn’t solve the problem, it will help.
Speaking on the partnership, Kezia M. Williams, Lead Organizer for My Black Receipt and CEO of the Black upStart stated:
“This is the first digital initiative to challenge Black consumers and allies to buy from a Black-owned business and upload their receipt into a platform that publicly displays how individual purchases can make a collective impact. We know that the recirculation of dollars through Black businesses has multiplier effects, just like it did in Black Wall Streets across the country. Black businesses hire Black, create Black products, give to Black causes, and pass down assets to Black families.”
Yelp also adds that it decided to act due to its community, asking for an easier way to find Black-owned businesses to support.
“Over the recent weeks, we’ve received an outpouring of requests from our community to provide an easy way to find and support Black-owned businesses on Yelp. In fact, this has been our most requested feature during this time, and over the course of two weeks* alone, we saw a 35x increase in the frequency of searches for Black-owned businesses across categories on Yelp compared to the same time last year. This inspired our teams to develop and release the searchable Black-owned attribute as quickly as possible to help connect people with great local Black-owned businesses in their communities.”
In addition to the opt-in Black-owned attribute, Yelp will also help amplify Black Receipt’s #MyBlackReceipt movement. If you want to participate, all you have to do is RSVP on their website commenting to support Black-owned businesses and upload your receipt to help reach the $5 million goal.
If you’re a Black-owned business looking to add the attribute to your Yelp page just follow these steps below:
- Visit Yelp for Business (Business Information tab) on desktop or your mobile browser.
- Click Edit next to Known for.
- Select Yes beside Black-owned.
- Click Save Changes.
Source: Yelp / My Black Receipt
Now, this is a great idea, shoutout to Yelp and Black Receipt.
Photo: Yelp / My Black Receipt
