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Mitigate Racial Bias in Retail and Customer Service Charter Collaboration

What if you could help transform the retail sector into one that welcomes everyone?

By leveraging groundbreaking research and the collective efforts of its signatories, the Mitigate Racial Bias in Retail and Customer Service Charter Collaboration is committed to enacting lasting, transformational change.

Companies that join Open to All and sign the Charter send a clear message that racial bias has no place in the customer or employee experience. Signatories are also encouraged to share best practices, resources, and training to ensure that every person who walks into a business is treated with the same level of dignity and respect.

After all, we know that customer service thrives on interpersonal connection. From conversations with customers to marketing campaigns, and product assortment to create a fulfilling shopper experience, the comfort, consideration, and fair treatment of others remain a core tenet of the industry. But not all shoppers feel welcome or experience comfort and inclusion when they visit a store. The data make this clear.

In 2021, Sephora commissioned a first-of-its-kind study that captured the scope and effects of racial bias in the retail sector. The study covered all major retail categories and gathered input from thousands of U.S. consumers and retail employees, ultimately providing an understanding of how the retail industry can better welcome all people. With findings that apply to all retailers, Open to All and Sephora invited retail leaders to use these insights as a starting point for collaboration, learning, and collective, systematic change across the retail sector.

Companies that join Open to All and sign the Charter are invited to participate in Open to All’s Mitigate Racial Bias in Retail and Customer Service Charter Collaboration Working Group, which meets bi-monthly. Through openness and collaboration, members of this working group consider the experiences of employees and customers alike to increase the hiring and retention rates of employees of color, both in store and in corporate offices, reimagine marketing campaigns to be inclusive of all, and work directly with entrepreneurs of color to get their products on shelves and available to wider audiences.

sign the charter

RESEARCH FINDINGS

signatories & supporters

How Addressing Racial Bias Helps Everyone

A customer service approach that is intentional about racial inclusion improves the consumer experience for everyone, regardless of race or ethnicity. After all, no one enjoys witnessing a conflict or act of discrimination toward a fellow shopper or customer during their experience in a business. In fact, these incidents have a high likelihood of becoming viral social media posts, causing reputational damage to metastasize. And the same inclusive practices that make visitors of color feel welcome benefit those who represent society’s diversity in other ways— including national origin, religion, disability, and LGBTQ identity. The Charter’s work comes at a time when fear of discrimination is surging. In 2025, nearly two thirds of those surveyed by Edelman said they worry about experiencing prejudice, discrimination, or racism – up 10 points from the previous year, including among white respondents in the U.S.

How the Charter Collaboration Works

Open to All facilitates the development and sharing of resources, education, and training materials among all Charter signees. In regular virtual meetings and an annual convening, we create a safe and confidential space where Charter participants can share key learnings and best practices.

Open to All recognizes companies are on various stages of their inclusion journeys. The goal of this collaboration—and all of Open to All’s work—is to create resources and opportunities to share best practices and strategies so everyone belongs. We offer an annual convening to provide an opportunity for companies to come together for this purpose. Every company has access to the same resources, education, and training materials, but can make their own decisions on how to incorporate what they learn Companies that sign the Charter also control their own public visibility and have complete autonomy on how they represent themselves.

Understanding our Progress and How to Improve

Open to All publishes an annual impact report with a dedicated section on tracking the growth and impact of the Charter collaboration. Through anonymous surveys and interviews, we identify collective successes as well as topics and resources that are needed to deepen inclusion work.

MITIGATE RACIAL BIAS IN RETAIL AND CUSTOMER SERVICE CHARTER COLLABORATION

Join Open to All and Sign the Charter

Co-initiated by Open to All and Sephora, the Mitigate Racial Bias in Retail and Customer Service Charter Collaboration leverages groundbreaking research and the collective efforts of its signatories to enact lasting, transformational change. As corporations, we aim to address racially biased and unfair treatment, which impacts consumers and employees alike. We believe retail and customer service industries should work to create welcoming and safe environments for all customers, clients, guests, and visitors.

Please join us in signing this Charter and commit to working together in:

Designing and implementing actions that mitigate racial bias from the shopper experience.
Fostering inclusive shopping experiences for all, regardless of their race and ethnicity.
Being accountable to our shoppers, our employees, and the retail industry.
Working together to share best practices across the retail industry to drive lasting change.

We know that one brand alone cannot create transformation. Together, we will make a difference.

Will you join us in this work?

What Companies Can Do to Make a Difference: Findings from Sephora’s Groundbreaking Research

While each company will take individual action, below are five recommendations from Sephora’s study on how companies can truly make a difference:

Increase diversity across marketing, product and brand assortment, and retail workforce to prevent exclusionary treatment before shoppers enter a store and during their in-store journey.

Three in four retail shoppers (74%) feel that marketing fails to showcase a diverse range of skin tones, body types, and hair textures.

Context: Three in four retail shoppers (74%) feel that marketing fails to showcase a diverse range of skin tones, body types, and hair textures, while two in three (65%) think stores fail to deliver an equally distributed assortment of products catering to different shoppers’ tastes and preferences. Moreover, nearly four in five retail shoppers (78%) don’t believe there is representation by brands or companies that are owned by and made for people of color.

Provide trainings focusing on the retail experience of shoppers of color to help address the disconnect between how BIPOC shoppers and store employees interpret interactions.

Three in five retail employees (60%) cited behavioral attributes rather than physical attributes when determining how to approach or interact with shoppers.

Context: BIPOC shoppers are three times more likely than white shoppers to feel judged by their skin color and ethnicity (32% vs. 9%). White shoppers, on the other hand, are more likely to say they are judged on factors like age (27% vs. 12%) or attractiveness (13% vs. 7%).

Improve service towards BIPOC shoppers and create a positive in-store experience, taking their specific needs into account.

Two in three retail shoppers (65%) think stores fail to deliver an equally distributed assortment of products catering to different shoppers’ tastes and preferences.

Context: Many BIPOC shoppers want retailers to take specific actions to help them feel welcome. These include being promptly greeted and offered assistance when they enter the store; receiving information about new products, offers, and services; and having store associates who “look like me.”

Create a better feedback mechanism to improve service.

70%

70% of shoppers who experienced unfair treatment provide feedback directly to the retailer.

Context: Fewer than one in five (15%) reported raising the issue with a manager or store supervisor. These missed opportunities for feedback and improvement impact future sales as shoppers take their business elsewhere.

Consistently independently report on meaningful actions and on progress toward fostering inclusive experiences for BIPOC shoppers. Plus, increase accountability through enhanced policies prohibiting discrimination, harassment, racial profiling, and bias-free loss prevention practices.

BIPOC shoppers are three times less likely than white shoppers to say the retailer addressed their experience with a change in store policy (34% vs. 11%).

Context: These situations can have permanent, economic consequences for a retailer, with two in five BIPOC shoppers (43%) saying they are unlikely to visit any store location belonging to a retailer where they experienced mistreatment.