11-13-2024
The holiday shopping season is just about here, and retailers are trying to figure out how to make all of their customers happy. According to a CNBC article, most retailers would like to engage in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, but they believe it is better to keep those policies private. Their priority is appealing to a broad customer base, and DEI has become a hot-button issue. From 2019 to 2022, openings for chief diversity and inclusion officer jobs spiked to 170%. Now, there are large-scale reductions in those roles at companies like Google and Metaewer DEI job postings and fewer DEI jobs available all over.
Tractor Supply walked back its DEI positions and policies earlier this year after a conservative activist highlighted the company online for those initiatives. They are not the only company to do that—Ford, Lowe's, and Molson Coors also did it. Anheuser-Busch and Target saw big sales drops for their LGBTQ marketing campaigns.
As they head into the holiday season, retailers see those other retailers as cautionary tales and want to avoid similar issues. The recent election is likely to exacerbate those concerns. One former retail executive told CNBC that retailers are in a "no-win situation." They have large customer bases that include the full breadth of the political spectrum. However, retailers need to consider DEI in their inventory strategies, per the head of a global fashion consulting firm. When designing a product line or service, if the business does not include a diverse representation of people, it will miss the "pulse on what [the] customer thinks about." So, customers may not see explicit DEI messaging, but they have to see it in the products, or it will not resonate with them.