Macy's will commit 15% of its shelf space to Black-owned brands, joining a pledge adopted by Sephora, Vogue, and Rent the Runway

• Macy's will commit at least 15% of its shelf space to Black-owned businesses, it announced on Wednesday.
• It is signing the "15 Percent Pledge," already adopted by retailers including Sephora, Vogue, and Rent the Runway.
• Macy's also unveiled other diversity measures, such as collaborations with Black designers within its private labels.
• Macy's said it hoped to "drive transparency and accountability" in the retail industry.

Macy's will devote 15% of its shelf space to Black-owned brands, it announced in a presentation to investors on Wednesday.

The department-store chain said it would take the "15 Percent Pledge," a grassroots project that lobbies major retailers in the US. The pledge reflects the fact that Black people make up about 15% of the country's population but are underrepresented on stores' shelves.

Other retailers already signed up include Sephora, Vogue, and Rent the Runway.

Macy's didn't state a timeline for fulfilling the pledge but said it would hold a workshop about the initiative in April.

The pledge would complement its existing "Workshop" project, a training plan to educate women- and minority-owned brands on how to grow their businesses, it said. So far, 125 businesses have taken part in the project, and some of them have since become Macy's suppliers.

The retailer also unveiled a range of other diversity-and-inclusion measures for the coming year. In November, it plans to publish its supplier-diversity spend, it said, which shows how much it spends on goods from businesses owned by LGBTQ people, women, people from ethnic minorities, and veterans.

Macy's most recently published this data in 2018, when it said it had purchased goods totaling $937 million from these businesses.

It also said it would feature collaborations with Black designers within its private labels and would publish annual diversity-and-inclusion goals in the spring, which it hoped would "drive transparency and accountability" in the retail industry.