Supporting Minority-Founded Ecommerce Businesses

In the world of e-commerce today, being a business owner is tough. According to a recent Jungle Scout study, only a third of sellers on Amazon report having a business partner or a full-time employee at their side; the bulk of the work is being tackled by the founders themselves. On top of the demands of running a business, female and minority-founded e-commerce businesses today continue to face their own unique challenges across the board. According to the same Jungle Scout study, as an example, women continue to be disproportionally represented in the marketplace, making up just under a third of total Amazon sellers.

Like many marketplaces, Amazon has begun to build better bridges to improve visibility for these communities. For example, as part of Black History Month, Amazon created a site specifically focused on Black-owned businesses “to celebrate the power of entrepreneurship and innovation in the Black community, through the voices of those making history now.”

Visibility also matters to us at Yardline. As part of a new series, we’ll be regularly highlighting sellers’ success stories to educate and inspire new female and minority-founded businesses. Our Founder Series blog posts will highlight Yardline clients who have worked with us and achieved their own definitions of success.

We also welcome female and minority-founded ecommerce business owners who are just getting started to reach out to us. The Yardline team has successfully scaled ecommerce businesses their entire careers and faced unique challenges along the way. If you’re a female or minority founder looking for advice, we invite you to contact our team of experts regarding areas you can explore to get started. And be on the lookout for some new inspirational and educational programs scheduled for the second half of 2021.

To date, Yardline has extended funding to women-owned businesses at a rate of more than double that of other funding sources, such as the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). This represents progress, but we have more work to do. If you are interested in finding out how we can help get your business off the ground with growth capital or advice from our team of experts, please don’t hesitate to contact us.