Target stands with Black-owned businesses
Retail features brands beyond BHM collection
When George Floyd’s murder sparked a national wave of protests to protect Black lives, many companies made diversity pledges, including a commitment to put more Black-owned brands on their shelves.
Target has followed through.
Target’s 2022 BHM collection reflects collaborations with Black employees, business owners and designers across the country. And the retailer has initiatives in place to continue mentoring and partnering with Black entrepreneurs and creators far beyond Black History Month.
“It’s important for us to have Black brands and Black merchandise at Target,” Francesca Neptune, senior buyer of multicultural merchandising, told USA TODAY. “Guests want to see themselves in the product. They want products that meet their needs. They want products that speak to them and represent their lifestyles.”
Target pledges to make staff more inclusive
In 2020, Target made a commitment to invest over $2 billion in Black-owned brands by 2025 and founded the Racial Equity Action and Change Committee, or REACH, to better support Target employees, customers and Black communities, Neptune said.
The latest BHM collection has the theme, “Creating Our Own Future,” and 86% of the items were created by Black business owners and designers, the most ever.
Target has also committed to increasing racial equity and representation among its staff. Target says lack employees will represent 20% of its workforce within three years. That hiring pledge was heavily influenced by Floyd’s killing, which happened in Minneapolis where Target is headquartered.
The retailer also donated $10 million to social justice organizations, including the National Urban League and the African American Leadership Forum.
Target offers mentorship to Black designers
Jasmin Foster, founder of the stationery brand, Be Rooted began her journey with Target in 2009 as a business analyst in the women’s shoes department. As a Black woman, she was both an employee and a consumer who cared about making sure shoppers like her were being acknowledged.
“It allowed for me to really think, ‘How do we show up even more for African American women?’” Foster said,* adding that while there were plenty of Black hair products on the shelves, she wanted to know how Target could expand into other areas. “After working with more small brands in that category, I was able to get exposed to entrepreneurship for the first time.”
When she was a young girl, Foster says she loved stationery and decorating her many journals. But she says there was a “lack of representation and inclusion” in the stationary she saw on most shelves. She wanted to create journals that Black women could turn to for selfcare. Foster says she founded Be Rooted to “uplift and celebrate women of color,” a goal that Target helped her achieve when she became part of its Forward Founder’s program, which helps business owners from marginalized communities evolve their brands.
“It was such a game changer to have this network of both internal Target people who are dedicated to giving us knowledge and really want to see us win and grow, but also our own community of other fellows that ...we were able to leverage and learn from,” she said of the eight-week program.
Neptune says the founder’s initiative is uniquely designed for entrepreneurs “that are in the very beginning stages of their journey... It’s meant to give them a holistic approach to how they plan their business and equip them with the knowledge necessary to grow their business and eventually get into retail.”
In addition to mentorship, members of the program get free consumer reports and other support. Another initiative, Target Takeoff, helps mature consumer companies sharpen their skills and get products into Target stores.
And Target has created the HBCU Design Challenge that enables students at historically Black colleges and universities to learn about all aspects of retail, from textile selection to how Target chooses new products for its stores. Winners of the challenge will have their shirt designs included in the BHM collection.
Investing in Black brands lifts the bottom line
Since Target has invested more in Black-owned brands, sales have significantly increased and customers have praised the products.
“Our shoppers are not afraid to tell us how they feel when it comes to the merchandise that’s on the shelf,” says Neptune, “and they’ve been extremely excited to ... discover new Black-owned brands that they may not have known were Black-owned, or they may not have heard of before or seen.”
The number of products specifically offered during Black History Month has continued to expand “and sells out quickly,” Neptune says, which led Target to increase its inventory and investment for this year.