eBay UK has launched a hub on its website to connect consumers to small and medium Black-owned fashion and beauty brands.
Vogue reports the website, called Black in Bloom, will feature fashion, beauty, and other consumer goods sold by graduates of the Black Girl Fest X eBay Sellers Academy. Black In Bloom comes at a time when many consumers are trying to be socially conscious about what and where they purchase their products.
eBay’s Head of Social Impact, Chris Gale, said there is a clear need to make it easier for socially conscious buyers to shop from Black-owned businesses.
“We are seeing from a buyer point-of-view, they are coming to the platform wanting to shop with their values front and center,” Gale told Vogue.
eBay and the Black Girls Fest, a festival and website designed for Black women, girls, and non-binary people, have collaborated with the academy to nurture Black entrepreneurs through one-on-one training for 12 to 14 weeks as well as mentoring to upgrade their e-commerce operations.
After graduating from the program, brands can then sell via the Black in Bloom hub.
“Once they’ve got those skills the hub is really a way for us, eBay, to drive traffic towards those businesses,” Gale said.
eBay is pushing to get 200 Black women-led e-commerce businesses on its platform this year through the program. The tech giant is also working to increase diversity in three specific areas—its workforce, the workplace, and the marketplace—by partnering with the Black Young Professionals network and Color In Tech to increase its own workplace diversity.
Black female entrepreneurs across the world took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic, starting their own businesses and taking their finances into their own hands. Additionally, their businesses are thriving. Alta Beauty, Target and other large retailers have created partnerships and businesses accelerator programs with small Black businesses.