Retail giant Walmart recently partnered with two nonprofits in creating a small, circular logo indicating that the company behind the product is owned by women. This is an effort after the store conducted a research survey that showed 90 percent of female customers in the U.S. “would go out of their way to purchase products from women, believing they would offer higher quality.” This is in addition to the existing consumer product labels such as Made in the USA, fair trade, kosher, and gluten-free. With over $1.3 trillion dollars contributed to the US economy by women-owned businesses, 80 percent of the consumer decisions globally are made by female buyers.

The goal of this new initiative is to build a voice for smaller women-owned businesses and compete with more established brands. Consumers will in turn have loyalty and in turn drive sales growth; thus a win-win for retailers, business owners, and the consumers. MiKaela Wardlaw Lemmon, senior director of Women’s Economic Empowerment at Walmart stated “At Walmart we are committed to empowering women and impacting women-owned businesses from around the world—and so are our customers. In fact, we recently conducted a survey that found 90 percent of female customers in the US would go out of their way to purchase products from women, believing they would offer higher quality.”

Having a logo that signifies being women owned should inspire new business owners to have a competitive edge in any saturated market. Lingerie brand Smart & Sexy and West Virginia-based Maggie’s Salsa are among the women-owned businesses that plan to adopt the new logo. Expect to see the new logos on products by September of this year. Being a woman owned service business, we at ARTEMIA Communications are proud to see this effort come into reality: Women Owned Businesses- We Can Do It!

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