Facebook Announces eCommerce Initiative To Support Black-Owned Businesses

To support Black-owned businesses and their communities, Facebook has introduced its #BuyBlack Friday event in the United States.

The event is part of the social media company’s Season of Support to offer complimentary resources, education and instruction to assist companies throughout the globe, according to a company blog post.

“Black-owned businesses have been hit especially hard by the pandemic, closing at twice the rate of other small businesses,” Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said in the post. “But we know that millions of people want to help. More than 3.5 million people on Facebook in the U.S. have joined new groups created to support Black-owned businesses since March.”

Facebook said it would debut functions in its app that inspire individuals to make posts supporting Black-owned companies beginning on Oct. 30. In addition, Facebook will provide a toolkit to interested companies so they can amplify #BuyBlack via their own channels.

Furthermore, resources and events will be posted on the company’s Facebook App Facebook Page and in Facebook’s Lift Black Voices Hub. The company will also debut The Facebook #BuyBlack Friday Gift Guide, which will highlight merchandise from U.S. Black-owned business throughout verticals from fashion to home and beauty. And its Businesses Nearby tool will assist individuals in locating local companies, including those that have elected to self-designate as Black-owned.

The news comes as Facebook introduced plans for a new program designed to assist small companies that depend on the social media firm to market their products and services to operate more efficiently online. Sandberg announced the launch of Facebook Business Suite in a September blog post.

“Today we’re introducing Facebook Business Suite, a new interface to help businesses save time and stay up to date by managing their pages or profiles across our apps,” she wrote at the time. The launch was geared toward small businesses initially, with intentions to roll out the service to larger businesses next year.