The Covid-19 pandemic has dealt Black-owned businesses a tough hand. Stifled by stay-at-home orders, on-again off-again store closures and stricter limits occupancy limits, many businesses are struggling to outlast the seemingly unending virus outbreak.&nbsp;



Although they’ve&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/us-black-owned-firms-make-surprise-comeback-to-pre-covid-level/2020/10/28/be1e3100-194b-11eb-8bda-814ca56e138b_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rebounded</a>&nbsp;slightly in recent months, Black-owned stores have experienced the greatest decline this year, plummeting from 1.1 million businesses in February to 640,000 in April—a&nbsp;<a href="https://siepr.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/20-022.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">41% drop</a>.



But spurred by a national movement to support Black businesses, which kicked off this summer, a new number of corporations are taking small steps to put the Black in Black Friday.



Black Friday online sales pulled in a record $7.4 billion in 2019— the second largest online shopping day ever and a 19.6% increase over the previous year—while the holiday season overall generated more than $72 billion in online sales, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2019/12/02/adobe-data-shows-record-cyber-monday-with-9-2-billion-in-online-sales.html#gs.lqxvdv" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Adobe Analytics</a>. Online sales for this Black Friday are projected to generate&nbsp;<a href="https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/www/us/en/adi/2020/pdfs/Adobe_Holiday_Forecast_Press.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$10.3 billion</a>.



The surge in digital spending over the holiday season and the heightened visibility that’s been awarded to small businesses through corporate sponsorships could have a considerable impact on Black businesses in particular, sustaining them through the a few more months of the pandemic.



Facebook, for one, launched its #<a href="https://about.fb.com/giftguide/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BuyBlackFriday initiative</a>&nbsp;and a corresponding toolkit and gift guide in October as part of a broader three-month campaign to buttress small businesses during the holiday season.



The gift guide features products from Black-owned businesses and was curated alongside the U.S. Black Chambers and several corporate partners.&nbsp;



“Black-owned businesses have been hit especially hard by the pandemic, closing at twice the rate of other small businesses,” Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote in a blog post announcing the initiative. She added, “But we know that millions of people want to help.”



The campaign runs through Black Friday on November 27, a symbolic starting gun for the holiday shopping season.



More recently, Google partnered with Grammy-winning musician Wyclef Jean and the U.S. Black Chambers to promote its&nbsp;<a href="https://smallbusiness.withgoogle.com/blackowned#!/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">#BlackOwnedFriday</a>&nbsp;campaign, an effort to make November 27 “Black-owned Friday” and galvanize shoppers to buy Black beyond the Thanksgiving weekend.



The tech giant has also showcased Black-owed businesses on its social platforms since mid-October and now&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Google/status/1331266675543564292" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">allows users</a>&nbsp;to find nearby stores that identify as Black-owned through its search engine.



“I’ve seen firsthand the strain and struggle that Black-owned businesses face,” Jean said in a statement. “For many of them, this holiday season will be critical to their survival.”



TikTok, the latest viral social media platform, threw its weight behind Black-owned businesses months after facing&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/1/21277505/tiktok-black-creators-censorship-algorithm-donation-diversity-council" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">censorship allegations</a>&nbsp;from Black creatives in June. Earlier this month, the video sharing platform, which has about 200 million monthly active users in the U.S., launched&nbsp;<a href="https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/amplifying-black-owned-businesses-on-tiktok" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Support Black Businesses</a>, a digital hub to amplify Black entrepreneurs.&nbsp;



TikTok also announced #ShopBlack, an in-app campaign that allows users to create videos spotlighting their favorite Black-owned businesses or to share their experience as a Black entrepreneur.



As small businesses reel from the pandemic’s economic disruption, many big retailers have had breakaway growth. Amazon’s profits and sales exceeded analysts’ expectations, reporting a 37% sales growth and tripling its third-quarter profits as more shoppers turn to the e-commerce giant during the pandemic.&nbsp;



But celebrities and influencers alike have started to leverage Amazon’s omnipresence to highlight Black sellers on the platform.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.oprahmag.com/style/a34480587/oprah-favorite-things-2020-black-owned-businesses/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nearly 70%</a>&nbsp;of the products on Oprah Winfrey’s highly anticipated annual list of her favorite things are created by Black-owned or Black-led businesses this year and all are available for purchase on Amazon.



The billionaire media mogul has partnered with Amazon on the list&nbsp;<a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/get-your-oprah-on-this-holiday-season-2015-11-05" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">since 2015</a>&nbsp;and her yearly picks have provided brands with considerable gains in sales since the list’s 1996 advent.



Black Americans have developed a growing presence among small businesses owners and could stand to gain considerable sales from dedicated shopping holidays like Small Business Saturday, which raked in an estimated<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191201005232/en/American-Express%E2%80%99-10th-Annual-Small-Business-Saturday%C2%AE-Hits-a-Record-High-with-an-Estimated-19.6-Billion-in-Reported-Spending" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;$19.6 billion</a>&nbsp;in 2019. And while physical distancing measures will significantly curb foot traffic this year, more than 112 million Americans visited a small business on that day last year, a record high.



As shoppers increasingly reject winding lines that snake around the store, a trend that’s long been in the making but was exacerbated by the pandemic, they’re also looking to support independent local businesses, providing a potential economic windfall for Black businesses with an online presence this holiday season.



-by Ruth Umoh, Forbes Staff

Tag: Christmas Shopping

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Black Businesses Receive Tech Industry Push Ahead Of Holiday Shopping Bonanza