PayPal Stories Archive

As holiday window displays from big name retailers are unveiled across storefronts in New York City, PayPal is taking a different approach to this year’s festive window displays by featuring small businesses making a big impact in the world. With big-box stores and algorithm-based online retailers making it harder and harder for small businesses to compete, PayPal is shining a spotlight on thoughtfully made gifts from impactful small businesses to help holiday shoppers give with heart this holiday season. 

 

Today, PayPal unveiled an interactive shoppable holiday window display on New York City’s 5th Avenue, which features the stories of five small businesses from across the country who are making a big impact in the world in their own unique way.

Located on 5th Avenue and 44th Street, the interactive shopping experience will not only tell shoppers more about these amazing small businesses and the work they do for the causes and communities they care about, but connect holiday shoppers with thoughtfully made gifts from thoughtfully owned businesses for every loved one on their list. The window displays offer a fully shoppable holiday window experience. Through QR codes on the glass, visitors of the windows can seamlessly scan and shop the businesses’ products right from the windows using their mobile phone.

• Hazel Village: Hazel Village is an independently owned children’s toy shop nestled in Brooklyn that makes organic, handmade woodland animals and dolls. Hazel Village partners with organizations that empower artisans with job skills, dignified work and fair wages to create beautifully-crafted, high-quality toys.
• Askinosie Chocolate: Askinosie Chocolate is a direct-trade chocolate maker that sources its cocoa beans directly from local farmers in the Philippines, Ecuador, Tanzania and the Amazon, and pays their farmers an average of 55% above the world market price. Askinosie Chocolate treats their cocoa farmers like business partners – with fairness, dignity, and respect –making sure they receive their fair share of the income, while delighting customers with award-winning chocolate that not only tastes good, but does good. 
• Block Shop: Block Shop is a female-owned textile business that supports the ancient technique of Indian hand block printing and believes in small-scale production and fair wages for their workers.  They embrace a decentralized supply chain to further the small family business ecosystem in their partner communities in India, and invest 5% of their profits into community health and empowerment programs in Jaipur each year. 
• Bee Raw: Bee Raw is a single-origin honey producer that spends as much time saving the world’s bee population as it does making delicious honey. Conscious of the origin and environmental impact of each ingredient, they produce a collection of goods free from additives and packaged in post-consumer paper and glass to ensure their products are made with pride and care – responsibly, sustainably and fairly.
• Misha and Puff: Misha and Puff is a female-founded children’s clothing company that supports female artisans in Peru while creating beautiful and functional pieces to last forever. Each piece is hand-knit in Lima by female artisans, who work and provide for their families from the comfort of their homes. Each knitter takes great pride in the pieces she knits, and their names can be found on the hang tag of her work.