The May 13 Localization Summit puts the chain's merchants in touch with community-relevant and diverse vendors.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens announced it will participate in the first-ever Localization Summit, a virtual showcase for diverse, local and regional businesses and entrepreneurs to share their retail offerings with representatives from the drug store chain’s merchandising team.

The virtual event, hosted by ECRM, provides local vendors, the opportunity to connect with Walgreens’ merchandising team, with the goal of winning access to Walgreens shelves in their local areas.

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“As America’s community pharmacy, Walgreens is continuously looking for ways to highlight and connect with the communities we serve in a deeper and bolder way,” says Kirk Hanselman, interim chief merchandising officer at Walgreens. “This event allows us to create a more meaningful and localized shopping experience by sourcing products from our customers’ neighborhoods that they know and love. We look forward to meeting the diverse group of business leaders and a successful event.”

The May 13 event will focus on products across grocery and household, apparel, beach, tourism and general merchandise, among others categories. Vendors can find additional information about the virtual event and apply to join, here.

It comes on the heels of the retailer’s Supplier Summit in October, during which Walgreens updated nearly 250 suppliers on growth strategies including Walgreens commitment to local and community roots. This localization summit aims to bring local businesses from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, to evaluate opportunities to build more locally relevant product offerings for Walgreens customers and deeper collaboration with new suppliers for the future.

All sourcing and product submissions will be made through RangeMe, the industry-standard online product discovery and sourcing platform. ECRM will qualify suppliers, create curated meeting schedules, and facilitate face-to-face virtual meetings with Walgreens buyers so that suppliers can introduce new and innovative products into the marketplace. All Meetings will be conducted through ECRM’s industry leading virtual meeting platform, ECRM Connect, plus, ECRM’s dedicated support team will help ensure that buyer and seller connections are executed seamlessly.