Women’s Day Tribute: Walmart Launches Empowering Women Together Program

To celebrate International Women’s Day, Walmart is introducing a line of boutique-type products on its online stores. There would be more than 200 products from 19 women-owned small scale companies. Called Empowering Women Together, the promotion features products which range from sarongs, cell phone cases and bags, to fresh roast ground coffee and organic chocolates bars.

Walmart’s Vision for Women

The project aims to promote these unique products from around the world on the front page of Walmart’s online store. Aside from the United States, products will also be sourced from Haiti, Rwanda, Peru, Nepal, Cambodia, Kenya, and Canada. This is part of Walmart’s Global Women’s Empowerment Initiative. The five-yar program launched in 2011 with goals and concrete steps to effect change for women all over the world. The companies represented in the Empowering Women Together program all have their own unique stories. Of the 19 companies in the program, nine are from the United States.

One of the participating companies is Women’s Bean Project, which started with two employees and a $500 investment. It has grown into an organization with hundreds of employees and an operating budget greater than $2 million. Their products include jewelry, dry rubs, salsa mixes, soups, chilis, coffee and gift baskets.

Walmart’s Store For Good

The Empowering Women Together will be integrated into the Store for Good program, where Walmart aims to connect consumers having products that do good for others, which in this case would be their suppliers and their community.

According to Andrea Thomas, Walmart Senior Vice-President, the program will connect Walmart shoppers in the United States to quality products made by women-owned small businesses around the world. In this program, these small businesses would be exposed to a bigger market, increase their sales, expand their business, and create more jobs and help improve their community. This will also enable these women entrepreneurs to have practical knowledge about business trends, product development, and the necessary experience and business acumen to grow their companies.

Video: Empowering Women Together by WalmartCorporate