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WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Pharmacy is planning to host its second annual Supplier Diversity & Minority Owned Summit from April 5 – 8, in partnership with ECRM and RangeMe, the company said today.
This summit is part of CVS Pharmacy’s ongoing efforts to bring a broader assortment of products from diverse suppliers and brands to customers – and work with those suppliers and brands to ensure mutual success through customized support and resources.
CVS Pharmacy currently carries more than 100 diverse-owned brands across front store categories and is committed to increasing that selection with enhanced merchandising protocols for diverse suppliers. Within beauty and personal care, for example, CVS Pharmacy has made significant strides in amplifying its commitment to build out diverse-owned assortments. It has recently added several new Black-owned brands and nearly 200 items from new and existing Black-owned brands, with many more launching across the category in 2022.
“We’re at our best when our priorities and actions reflect the needs of the communities we serve,” said Andrea Harrison, VP of Merchandising, Beauty & Personal Care at CVS Health. “We’ll continue to feature the brands and trends that speak to the diversity of our customers while simultaneously offering the value, innovation and trust they expect from the products across our aisles.”
The 2022 summit will focus on products across beauty, grocery, personal care, health, wellness, household and general merchandise. Vendors can learn more and apply to join the virtual event by visiting www.rangeme.com/cvsdiversitythrough February 14, 2022.
Andrea Harrison
To further support CVS Pharmacy’s commitment to increasing its selection of diverse-owned brands, new tools and processes have been created to ensure increased diverse spend and a more inclusive supplier and product landscape, including:
- CVS Merchandising, in partnership with the CVS Health Enterprise Procurement Supplier Diversity team, has hosted a Supplier Diversity in Merchandising program annually for the past four years to identify new diverse suppliers and assist in eliminating barriers to starting in retail.
- CVS Health’s Supplier Diversity program hosts an annual Executive Learning Series, which provides training in a wide variety of skills around pitching and landing expanded retail distribution of products, including the opportunity to engage in individualized executive coaching.
- CVS Pharmacy merchandisers attend supplier diversity advocacy conferences, such as National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) and Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), to meet with diverse suppliers.
- CVS Pharmacy works to reinforce the diversity of both product assortment and suppliers throughout its planogram process to deliver relevant offerings to the communities it serves.
Additionally, with the goal of achieving mutual success, CVS Pharmacy offers unique opportunities to smaller diverse suppliers entering mass retail, including:
- Providing resources, training and mentoring for new and/or growing diverse suppliers as they gain a foothold in the retail environment.
- Developing refreshed intake forms to ensure specific supplier needs are appropriately flagged and accommodated.
At this Supplier Diversity & Minority Owned Summit, all sourcing and product submissions will be made through RangeMe, the industry-standard online product discovery and sourcing platform. ECRM will then create curated meeting schedules and facilitate face-to-face virtual meetings with the merchants, so that suppliers can present new and innovative products and solutions for CVS Pharmacy customers. All meetings will be conducted on ECRM’s virtual meeting platform, ECRM CONNECT, on April 5 – 8. ECRM’s team will help ensure that the meetings are executed with the utmost efficiency.
