Yelp Adds Search Function To Help Users Find Women-Owned Businesses

Yelp will soon allow users to search specifically for women-owned businesses, including restaurants, ... [+] home services and more.

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In recent years, Yelp has seen an increase in requests from users for ways to search for women-owned businesses, and the business listing site is ready to honor those requests. Upon tracking that mentions of women-owned businesses in reviews are up 20% since 2018 and 54% since five years ago. Yelp will be making its women-owned business attribute searchable for the first time. The function will launch on March 8, in honor of International Women’s Day.

“We’re thrilled to help raise the profile of millions of women-owned businesses who drive the local economies of our cities and towns,” says Emily Washcovick, Senior Field Marketing Manager and Small Business Expert at Yelp, citing a rising trend among reviewers mentioning if a company is female-owned. “We’re hopeful that this attribute not only makes it easier to identify and connect with great women-owned businesses on Yelp, but that it also drives more dollars directly to the bottom line for more female entrepreneurs. It's an honor to be able to help women create economic sustainability for themselves, as well as for their families and communities.”

Last year, Yelp worked with Rebecca Minkoff's Female Founder Collective to automatically list more than 1,000 of their business members as "Women-Owned" on their respective Yelp pages. Currently, female business owners can login to their Yelp business owner dashboard to mark themselves as women-owned. Soon, this data will be publicly searchable.

New York City's Lekka Burger is a proudly women-owned business, which will be searchable via Yelp.

Yelp

“As one of the biggest connectors between consumers and local businesses, Yelp is uniquely positioned to provide key information about the values and business practices of businesses,” say Washcovick. “We're hopeful by making this information easily accessible, consumers are able to support businesses that matter to them — whether it's their local bagel shop or favorite white tablecloth restaurant.”

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While the feature has yet to launch, Washkovick has already heard positive feedback. “I was actually talking to a mom entrepreneur today about this feature being searchable and she said that she thinks the power of that is larger than life. Many women want to support other women, but there are also so many industries that are female to female or mother to mother and it's important to know that you're getting a reliable provider or supplier,” she says. “As a mom, especially, there are needs you have that you may feel more comfortable working with a woman for. This attribute empowers the consumer to spend money in a place they feel good about.”

One other attribute women-owned businesses may feel good about? Ratings. Yelp data shows that in looking at the average rating of all open, active U.S. businesses with at least 5 reviews, businesses marked as women-owned had higher average ratings than businesses marked as not women-owned. The effect holds true across just about every category of business on Yelp.

Women-owned businesses will be more visibly women-owned, thanks to Yelp.

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To celebrate the launch of the new feature, Yelp has also shared its list of Top 100 women-owned businesses across the U.S., listed alphabetically by state, below:

Top 100 Women-Owned Businesses in the United States

Esthetic Arts, Kodiak, AK

Alaska Outdoor Gear Outfitter & Rentals, Anchorage, AK

Gypsy Rose Dancing, Huntsville, AL

Piper and Leaf x Strong Station, Madison, AL

Mockingbird Kitchen, Fayetteville, AR

Whilma’s Filipino Restaurant, Searcy, AR

Koi Poke, Scottsdale, AZ

The Bronze Bar, Scottsdale, AZ

Nice & Easy Smog Check - Temecula, Temecula, CA

AAA Smog Center, Santee, CA

Lakewood Garage Door, Lakewood, CO