YouTube To Host First-Ever ‘Small Biz Day’ With Live Shopping Stream, Creator-Led Workshops

Micro-, Small, And Medium-Sized Enterprises Day, a new day of awareness declared by the United Nations on June 27, aims to aid entrepreneurs hit by the fallout of the pandemic.

Accordingly, Google is hosting its first-ever International Small Business Week next week, and announcing several new tools to make it easier for business owners to connect with customers across its various products, including Search, Maps, Ads, and YouTube.

As part of the festivities, YouTube will be hosting its first Small Biz Day on June 24, including a livestreaming shopping event featuring over 20 U.S. and Canadian small businesses demoing summer gifts. Items will range from Indian-American skincare to flip flops made from wartime combat boots, with viewers being able to purchase products directly from the stream. Participating businesses include Veteran-owned flask masker Hibear, sustainable and ethical Progeny Coffee, and preservative-free Salsa Queen.

Small Biz Day will also comprise panels and workshops for small business owners, hosted by Blogilates founder Cassey Ho, Molly Burke, Erin On Demand, and TheDomesticGeek. All of the events will take place on the Google for Small Business YouTube channel.

Finally, YouTube is launching a new ad creation experience that it says will enable business owners to author campaigns in three simple steps — by uploading the video ad, audience targets, and budget. This feature is also accessible on mobile devices, and marks a separate capability from Video Builder, a tool unveiled last year enabling small businesses to create video ads using two images and a logo.

You can check out the full agenda for YouTube’s first-ever Small Biz Day right here.