Campaign supports entrepreneurs and celebrates Black ingenuity

With the aim of strengthening and increasing the visibility of Black entrepreneurs, Mercado Libre launched a new campaign in December to celebrate Black entrepreneurship and its ability to generate trends. The initiative brought together over 1,000 fashion, beauty and decoration products produced by 70 brands, curated by Feira Preta, in a special page within the Mercado Libre marketplace. Through this, consumers across the country had access to products sold by entrepreneurs from all over Brazil.

2022 saw the in-person return of Feira Preta and featured a program full of entrepreneurship, technology, literature, music and digital arts. It took place between November 5 and December 4 in several locations in the city of São Paulo.

With the motto "We make the future happen", the campaign celebrated five years of partnership between Mercado Libre and PretaHub, which is responsible for organizing Feira Preta. Since 2018, the company has been offering training in e-commerce as part of Afrolab, a program that supports Black, indigenous and Quilombola entrepreneurs. It provides training ranging from the creative process to the commercialization of products and services. The initiative is part of Mercado Libre's initiatives to encourage entrepreneurship and democratize access to electronic commerce and money in Latin America.

Since 2021, Mercado Libre and PretaHub have been working together to bring the Afrolab system to Colombia as well. Between the 3rd and 7th of October 30 entrepreneurs in the country received training and assistance in self awareness, creativity, business management and digital marketing, among other topics.

Last year, 80 female entrepreneurs benefited from the online format of the training. This year, the training was face-to-face and aimed at participants of the Petrônio Álvarez festival of African culture. It has benefited businesses that have been operating for at least two years working with handicraft, design, beauty and cosmetic products that promote the cultural identity of Black and indigenous communities from Colombia.

The return of face-to face Feira Preta also brought another first: Mercado Pago was the festival's official digital bank. In addition to being the main sponsor of the event's entrepreneurs area, Mercado Pago donated 240 card payment machines to the businesses that participated in the event. It granted differentiated rates and distributed a Pix kit with several features to digitize and offer sales receipts.

Mercado Libre's digital bank also had its own space to present and promote its payment products and services. To support the theme of the festival, Mercado Libre organized financial advisor and businesswoman Nathália Rodrigues of Nath Finance to give a talk and answer questions from consumers and entrepreneurs in a special panel.