How Skimlinks Supports Black-owned Affiliate Programs

2020 has seen national and international discussions about racial injustice, and increasing awareness among publishers and consumers of the importance of investing in Black-owned brands. In the US particularly, the COVID-19 pandemic compounded the existing challenges faced by Black-owned businesses, disrupting their operations more significantly than their white counterparts. 

In response, publishers across our network have doubled down on their efforts to spotlight and showcase these businesses, creating directories that their large shopping audiences can intentionally and consistently shop from long term. 

To support our publishers, we’ve used our newsletters to our publisher network to highlight merchants who are curating Black artisans including: 

• Cratejoy, who have curated subscription boxes featuring products from Black-owned businesses 
• Society6, who have invited their customers to discover Black artists from the Society6 community
• Uncommon Goods, who have dedicated a page to products created by Black artisans and independent makers

In addition, a number of the larger brands on our network have been giving back to racial justice initiatives, or holding themselves accountable to diverse representation, and we’ve shared their work in our newsletters as well. Merchants have included:

• Glossier, who committed $500K in the form of grants to Black-owned beauty businesses
• Sephora and Rent The Runway, who both committed to Aurora James’ 15% pledge, dedicating 15% of their inventory to Black-owned businesses, to align with the fact that Black people make up approximately 15% of the US population  
• Ugg, who donated $500,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Black Lives Matter, and the Antiracist Research and Policy Center 

In order to help publishers to inspire their readers to invest directly in Black-owned businesses, we’ve been onboarding new brands onto our network (most recently Golde, Egunsi Foods and Manuela Lubin Delicate Beauty), as well as hosting online webinars that help minority-owned businesses to get started in the affiliate space. 

In addition to these newer brands, publishers have also been spotlighting more established Black-owned brands like Briogeo, Ruby Love, Linoto, Oui The People, Anya Lust, LooHoo, 54kibo and DAEM. The significant uplift in clicks to these businesses from across our publisher network has generated tangible year-over-year sales uplifts over 1000%.

In calling attention to merchants who are curating the excellent work of Black artisans, spotlighting major brands who are giving back to racial justice initiatives, onboarding BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color)-founded brands and providing resources to get started in the affiliate space, we will carry on supporting our publishers’ important work in fostering their audiences’ continued awareness of Black creatives and entrepreneurs.