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Diving Summary:
Sephora announced the 2023 cohort of its Accelerate brand incubator program on Tuesday. The program focuses on startup founders of color. The company selected seven beauty brands: Moodeaux, Brown Girl Jane, Range Beauty, Glosshood, Seaspire Skincare, Oui the People and Of Other Worlds. As part of the six-month program, participants will receive mentorship, business support, grants, investor presentations and the opportunity to sell their products in Sephora’s North American stores, according to the press release. The retailer said it has also partnered with beauty branding agency School House to provide customized brand strategies and workshops for program participants.
Diving information:
Sephora is continuing its efforts to diversify the beauty industry in the years after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests.
The retailer signed up for the 15 Percent Pledge in 2020 and published a study on racial bias in the retail industry in 2021. That study inspired the Mitigate Racial Bias in Retail Charter, aimed at addressing racial bias and discrimination in retail , which has attracted 42 members, including recent signees LVMH, Glossier, Cartier and Urban Outfitters.
Sephora’s Accelerate program has been another method of improving diversity. The retailer has emphasized brands owned and founded by people of color for the past few years as a means to enhance its product assortment. Last year, Sephora also launched its first ad campaign highlighting black-owned beauty brands.
“We are very excited to welcome all of the 2023 finalists to the Accelerate program and to the Sephora family,” Priya Venkatesh, senior vice president of global merchandising, said in a statement. “Our program continues to create spaces for BIPOC-owned and founded brands that represent our customers and the world today, while providing significant support for growing brands to succeed.”
This year, Sephora’s cohort includes clean fragrance brand Moodeaux, multicultural health, wellness and beauty company Brown Girl Jane, playful beauty brand Glosshood, safe and sustainable skincare brand Seaspire Skincare, brand body care company Oui the People, clinical clean skincare company Of Other Worlds, and plant-based makeup company Range Beauty.
Walmart also launched an incubator program earlier this year to nurture emerging beauty brands. In August, the retail giant selected five entrants: Dossier, Undefined Beauty, PaintLab, Pardon My Fro and The Hair Lab By Strands.
In its own effort to improve Black-owned brands, Ulta in 2021 committed more than $25 million to diversity and inclusion efforts, including promoting Black-owned brands, implementing quarterly unconscious bias training for store employees , doubling its assortment of black-owned brands, and pursuing other initiatives in its marketing, merchandising, and employee training operations.
Source: news.google.com