Create & Cultivate, Mastercard Team to Create ‘Main Street Love’
Create & Cultivate and Mastercard have launched “Main Street Love,” a digital storefront that showcases and supports women-owned small businesses in the U.S.
The site is designed for shoppers who “can shop from the comfort of their home and support the curated selection of small businesses from across the country, regardless of location,” the companies said in a statement adding that recent Mastercard holiday sentiment research showed that “77 percent of Americans will choose to shop local this year with 68 percent prioritizing purchases from women-owned small businesses, and 66 percent wanting to support Black-owned small businesses.”
More from WWD
Cheryl Guerin, executive vice president of North America marketing and communications for Mastercard, said local businesses “are so much more than what they sell, they are the hearts of our communities and foundation of our economy.” Guerin praised the partnership with Create & Cultivate to “provide a safe, digital shopping experience this holiday season that enables consumers to support local small businesses across the country and shine a light on the fearless women business owners behind them.”
The pop-up web site will be active through Dec. 23, and will feature “a diverse selection of hand-selected products across various categories such as home accents, fashion and accessories, beauty and self-care, and lifestyle and culinary,” Mastercard said.
The small business brands and retailers on the site include Tezza of ByTezza, Michelle Cadore of Yes I Am Inc, Sonja Rasula of Care Package, Diana Gaitirira of Rough Love, Kelsea Olivia of East Olivia, Carla Marina Marchese of Red Bee, Bianca Negrón of Bianca Designs, Deepica Mutyala of Live Tinted and Cyndi Ramirez-Fulton of Chillhouse, among others.
The collections are curated from an “editorialized perspective,” Mastercard noted, stating that visitors can purchase directly from the small business listed “while learning more about the brand and its founder(s) along the way.”
By spotlighting the founders, the site keys into the values-driven demands of shoppers. Mastercard said about 53 percent of Americans polled said they would prefer not to receive a gift at all this year than to receive one from a retailer whose personal values don’t align with their own.
Jaclyn Johnson, Create & Cultivate’s founder and chief executive officer, said in a statement that supporting “womxn-owned small businesses, as a woman-owned small business ourselves, is at the core of what Create & Cultivate stands for.”
