Ocado is promoting products made by women with a ‘Buy Women Built’ online section, selling more than 1,000 products made by female entrepreneurs.
Buy Women Built banners will launch across Ocado’s app, website and an ‘Inspire Me’ tab from tomorrow.
Coffee Republic founder Sahar Hashemi set up campaign group Buy Women Built and convinced Ocado to launch the initiative to help boost sales at female-founded firms.
Ocado has collated 130 female-founded brands, including well-know brands Little Moons ice cream and Pip & Nut peanut butter, alongside start-ups such as All Dressed Up sauces.
Some of the brands that form part of the initiative are new to the online supermarket.
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Ocado Retail chief executive Hannah Gibson told The Sunday Times: “There are far fewer women entrepreneurs out there and we want to support that community.”
Hashemi added: “This isn’t patronising — it’s signposting. Female entrepreneurship rates in the UK are 30% behind other developed countries.
“Confidence is a huge issue — women don’t feel they’ve got what it takes. Showing people that so many brands are in fact created by women leads more female entrepreneurs to think, ‘We can do this.’ It’s a way to make future generations see the power of women.”
The Buy Women Built initiative follows a recent campaign to get shoppers to Buy British, with a raft of supermarkets including Ocado creating online sections signposting British grown food.
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