With Small Business Saturday coming up on November 26th, we wanted to highlight a partner who is making a difference for small businesses.
Sertify helps small businesses as well as other diverse groups by making it easy for publishers to identify diverse merchants based on several ownership profiles. We spoke with Sertify to discuss the importance of supporting small businesses during this holiday shopping season.
Please provide a brief description of Sertify
More than 80% of consumers & companies want to support small and diverse-owned businesses which drives 46% of the US GDP. With the impact from the pandemic and the amplification of diversity issues, we felt the need to do something, so we created Sertify to help companies identify and support small and diverse-owned businesses.
What are the benefits for advertisers to sign-up with Sertify?
Advertisers can get discovered and highlighted by over 240,000 active ShareASale publishers. They are looking to connect with and promote small and diverse-owned businesses. You can also be featured and push products and promotions during celebrations throughout the year – e.g. Small Business Saturday, Women’s History, Pride, AAPI Heritage, Hispanic Heritage, Black History Month…
Does Sertify have any plans to offer certifications for other diverse groups?
We launched Sertify with ten common and governmental designations.
- Small Business
- Woman owned
- LGBTQ owned
- Disability owned
- Veteran owned
- Minority owned
- Asian owned
- Black owned
- Hispanic owned
- Native American owned
We will be considering more as we expand!
What are some benefits of participating in the Shop Small movement?
Since 80% of consumers want to shop small, the holiday season amplifies this. 66% say that Small Business Saturday makes them want to Shop Small all year long! The stats are showing this since spend at independent retailers and restaurants on Small Business Saturday reached an estimated $23.3 billion in 2021, up 18% from 2020.
Why were small businesses one of the groups you chose to support?
In recent years, online spending, the pandemic and the shifting economy have significantly impacted small shops and family-owned businesses. Many of our favorite shops and restaurants closed, so we need to help them open doors to new customers. Just as important economically, for every $1 spent at a local business, $0.68 stays in your local economy versus $0.43 if you buy from a larger company!
What kind of support does Sertify provides small businesses leading up to Small Business Saturday?
Small advertisers get discovered and highlighted to over 240,000 active ShareASale publishers with a number of large publishers spotlighting businesses for Small Business Saturday and the holidays. To also drive more business, Sertify provides badges that can be customized with preset formats so they can be added to your website, social media profiles (Facebook, Instagram) and your business listings (Google, Yelp).
Do you have any recommendations for how larger companies can show their support of small businesses?
More than 70% of people want to buy from companies based on shared values and beliefs. Large companies can help drive growth and enhance their brand image by showing support for small and diverse-owned businesses. Publishers can highlight and profile small and diverse-owned businesses in their content. On the flip side, large advertisers can identify, grow spend & measure representation with small & diverse businesses.
If you’re a small, diverse ShareASale merchant, get sertified for a special rate of $90 for the first year. Apply today
If you’re a publisher who wants to support small, diverse businesses on the ShareASale platform, please get in touch at ShareASale@ShareASale.com.
