For Etsy, inclusion isn't just a marketing strategy to gain new customers and sellers, it's ingrained in the DNA of the company and part of the machine that helps the e-commerce platform thrive, Dayna Isom Johnson told Cheddar.
"Last year we really took a more [concerted] effort and approach in how we can make our workforce even more diverse and so we were able to double that number of underrepresented minorities in 2019 versus 2018," said the Etsy trend expert.
The company's dedication to diversity extends beyond its staff to ensure that Black and other minority sellers on the platform are getting a boost through company programs and "community building" where they can share information and promote their businesses, Johnson added.
"I think another great example is that community-led team that I was speaking about, the Black-owned shops team, because, again, that's really grassroots effort. That is our seller community coming together to help build and uplift each other," she said.
The company has also carved out a section of its site specifically for Black-owned businesses as more people search for them on the platform.
"In terms of people really wanting to support these Black-owned shops and businesses, the demand is there," she said.
While this year certainly saw more companies making an effort to uplift small, Black-owned businesses, Johnson said inclusion efforts for Etsy's "global community" were underway before it became mainstream.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
