The US non-profit Open to All today has announced that 28 leading US retailer brands have signed the Mitigate Racial Bias in Retail Charter to stop racism in retail.

Signing the charter means taking concrete steps to ensure a more welcoming environment for all by reducing racially biased experiences and unfair treatment for shoppers in the retail sector. Sephora, Gap Inc, CarMax, Ben & Jerry’s are just some of the industry leaders taking first-of-its-kind national pledge to implement strategies aimed at addressing racially-biased and unfair treatment in retail. 

The Mitigate Racial Bias in Retail Charter was inspired by the Racial Bias in Retail Study; a groundbreaking national study commissioned by Sephora that explored the ways in which BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) shoppers experience discrimination in retail settings, as reported. The report found that two in five US retailer shoppers have personally experienced unfair treatment on the basis of their race or skin tone; and that BIPOC retail shoppers were three times more likely than White shoppers to feel most often judged by their appearance. 

COMBATTING UNFAIR RACIAL BIAS IN RETAIL

Initiated by Open to All and Sephora in 2022, the Mitigate Racial Bias in Retail Charter is a multi-stakeholder collaboration that aims to implement tactics and actions to reduce racially biased interactions from the shopper experience and create an environment that is truly welcoming to all. Open to All and Sephora partnered on this work; with Open to All convening its Inclusive Retail members to apply the study’s findings with the goal of collaboration and collective impact across the retail sector. Starting with the Charter, this growing collaboration also includes the development of resources and education; including training materials and an annual in-person convening. 

“The study underscored the pervasiveness of unfair treatment of BIPOC shoppers in retail spaces throughout this country,” stated Calla Devlin, Director of Open to All. “We believe the retail industry should have a zero-tolerance discrimination policy. With the commitments from these companies, we can begin to address the problem, act and start to make shopping more inclusive. Our goal is to create an environment that is truly open to all. We hope companies across the retail sector will join us, sign the Charter, and work together to create meaningful impact and share best practices.”

CREATING A WELCOMING RETAIL EXPERIENCE

“At Sephora, diversity, equity, and inclusion have long been core to our mission since our US debut more than 20 years ago; but we recognised that the retail experience has not always been welcoming,” stated Jean-André Rougeot, President and CEO of Sephora Americas. “When we first commissioned the Racial Bias in Retail Study in 2019, it was our intent that the findings would serve as useful insights for the entire retail sector, including Sephora. Today, we are proud to have this work resonate in such a deeply impactful way via the Charter; and with the commitment of so many retail signatories, we can collectively work to change the retail experience on a much faster and broader scale.  We celebrate those that have joined and encourage others to sign on; as it’s not about perfection, it’s about a commitment to progress for shoppers today and tomorrow.”

By signing the Charter, the signatory retailers acknowledge that racially biased and unfair treatment exists broadly in our society; and as such, can impact the retail experience. They have all pledged to design and implement actions that mitigate racial bias from the shopper experience, help foster inclusive shopping experiences for all; and work together to share best practices across the retail industry to drive change. 

PROMOTING INCLUSION

The ways that retailers can support the Charter include:

• Increasing diversity across marketing, products, branding, and the workforce to help prevent exclusionary treatment before shoppers enter a store. 
• Providing critical employee training on the experience of shoppers of colour; to help address the disconnect between how BIPOC shoppers and store employees interpret interactions. 
• Creating a feedback mechanism to improve service; and report back on any meaningful actions and progress toward fostering more inclusive experiences for BIPOC shoppers.

This Charter was informed by key findings from Sephora’s Racial Bias in Retail Study,  which shed light on what racial bias looks, sounds, and feels like in retail settings, as reported; and most importantly, what to do to prevent it from happening in the future.  To support the overall effort, a member of the OTA partner group has funded a two-hour anti-racism training to be shared with all Charter members. The training was developed by Mattingly Solutions, a DEI consulting firm focused on workplace inclusion. 

CREATING SAFE & INCLUSIVE RETAIL EXPERIENCES

US retailers that have joined the Charter to date are American Eagle Outfitters Inc (American Eagle, Aerie), Ascena Retail Group (Ann Taylor, Lane Bryant, LOFT, Lou & Grey), Ben & Jerry’s, Capri Holdings (Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo, Versace), CarMax, Crocs, DICK’S, GAP Inc (Athleta, Banana Republic, Gap, Old Navy), H&M, J Crew Group, Levi Strauss & Co, Michaels, Movado Group, Tapestry (Coach, Kate Spade, Stuart Weitzman), rue 21, Sephora and Zara.

“H&M USA is proud to be a signatory of this very important charter,” said Katja Ahola, US Country Sales Manager of H&M. “We know as an industry there is still so much work to be done, but this very important step, and the collective work of the signatories, will bring us closer to the goal of a more welcoming, safe and inclusive retail experience for all our customers.”

MITIGATING RACIAL BIAS IN RETAIL

George-Axelle Broussillon Matschinga, Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion at Sephora, has been partnering with Open to All’s Director Calla Devlin for almost a year to build the industry-wide initiative and coalition and launch of the Mitigate Racial Bias in Retail Charter, co-initiated by Sephora and Open to All. She thanked all 28 major retailers and 14 supporters have who have signed the pledge to stop racism in retail.

“When we first initiated our Racial Bias in Retail Study in late 2019, it was precisely our hope that its findings would benefit the entire industry and that others would join Sephora in working toward change,” stated Sephora’s Broussillon Matschinga. “We are grateful to Open to All for providing the platform to bring our vision to life as part of our DE&I Heart Journey strategy and commitments. We encourage our fellow retailers to join us in signing this Charter.”

Non-retail companies, institutions, NGO’s and nonprofits are also encouraged to support the Charter and take the Open to All pledge.  Click here to find out more and sign the charter.

Check out the findings of Sephora’s research on racial bias in retail here.

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