New Initiative Aims to Boost Supplier Diversity in the Convenience Channel
CHICAGO — Convenience Store News is teaming up with online product discovery platform RangeMe to help convenience store operators more efficiently find and source diverse-owned and emerging brands across multiple product categories.
The CSN Supplier Showcase: Diverse & Emerging Brands collection on RangeMe consists of a curated group of products from hundreds of emerging and diverse-owned brands that meet specific criteria based on input from CSNews’ Supplier Diversity Committee. The collection features items across food, beverage, general merchandise, and health and beauty care categories.
This new collaboration is part of CSNews’ “The Business Case for Diversity & Inclusion” program, an industrywide initiative that facilitates engagement among all stakeholders in the convenience channel around diversity, equity and inclusion. The platform is designed to be a catalyst for discussion, innovation, engagement and action.
“Our industry's commitment to diversity and inclusion extends to our supplier community as well,” said Derek Gaskins, head of guest experience at bp and a member of CSNews’ Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Board. “I have worked with RangeMe on previous initiatives, and this collaboration with CSN will make it easier for convenience store operators to find a multitude of products that are uniquely tailored to their customers’ needs.”
Convenience store retailers are invited to join RangeMe for free and explore the collection of innovative, diverse-owned and emerging brands, which can be filtered by certifications, category, distribution and more to narrow down the search. Users can request samples with the click of a button and even place orders directly from the platform for select brands.
“We know that convenience store operators are interested in supplier diversity, but many — especially those from smaller, independent businesses — have limited time and resources,” said Andrea Kumse, director of client success at RangeMe. “This collection places thousands of products from diverse-owned and emerging brands right at their fingertips.”
Qualified convenience store operators can join RangeMe for free at this link. Contact Kumse at andrea.kumse@rangeme.com if encountering any difficulty signing up.
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