Target to Invest $2B in Black-Owned Businesses by 2025

Target announced it will partner with more Black-owned companies, CNBC reported. The retail chain will also launch a program to identify and support rising minority entrepreneurs, and include products from more than 500 Black-owned brands on its shelves or website. All of these initiatives combined will leave Target spending more than $2 billion with Black-owned businesses by 2025.

Target is establishing new resources to further support Black-owned businesses, such as building a team that's dedicated to providing vendors with support and assistance for growing their businesses. It's also launching a program called Forward Founders that will engage Black entrepreneurs early in their startup journey to support them in developing, testing and scaling products to sell at mass retailers. Forward Founders will be modeled off of Target Accelerators, a program already in place to foster fresh startups.

Total Retail's Take: Target is following the lead of other top retailers when it comes to working towards advancing racial equality within their business and across the industry. Recently, Nike, Ulta Beauty, and Walmart have shared their own pledges, which include devoting more shelf space to products from Black-owned businesses to evaluating how they hire employees. Many retailers have also signed the 15 Percent Pledge, which calls on businesses to commit a minimum of 15 percent of their in-store and online shelf space to Black-owned businesses. Such actions are not only the right moral thing to do, but they also provide business value. For example, research shows that Generation Z deeply cares about social justice and wants to spend their money with brands that align with their values. Going forward, this trend is expected to grow amongst all consumers, not just younger generations.