Google Celebrates International Small Business Week

DID YOU KNOW?

June 21st marks the start of International Small Business week!

The team at Google Canada is celebrating by sharing resources and tools to help small businesses continue to succeed and highlighting ways for consumers to support small businesses.

One of these tools, ShopHERE with Digital Main Street, is celebrating its first anniversary. ShopHERE was launched last April by Digital Main Street (TABIA) and the City of Toronto to help independent businesses, entrepreneurs and artists build a digital presence and minimize the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last May, Google Canada announced a one million dollar commitment to scale the program and ShopHERE powered by Google was born.

Since then, more than 25,000 Canadians have signed up for the program, including 64% that identify as women and 33% that identify as BIPOC. Additionally, over 780 university and college students and grads have been hired to build websites for the businesses, with 54% identifying as female and 75% as BIPOC. This comes at a time when consumers across the country are rallying behind small businesses. Google searches for “support local businesses” have grown by more than 20,000% since last year. For the businesses, the program had a tremendous impact on their ability to stay afloat and reach customers beyond the traditional main street.

Eligible businesses are still able to sign up for the ShopHERE powered by Google program and can get helpful tips and tricks to expand online from Google for Small Business. Check out this blog to hear from a few of the Canadian businesses that participated in the program over the past year.

In addition to the ShopHERE anniversary, Google Canada is also celebrating the launch of new resources like the Digital Essentials Guide, a new spot featuring Sandy Wong, and a live shopping experience on YouTube where consumers across North America can shop from 20+ small businesses on the Google Small Business YouTube channel this Thursday (June 24th).

Explore tools to start and guides to grow your business, along with ways to support your favourite small businesses here.

Official Canada Blog - News and notes from Google Canada