DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Wednesday that it will hold its first Puerto Rico Localization Summit, a virtual showcase for diverse, local and regional businesses and entrepreneurs to share their retail offerings with the merchants of the national drugstore chain. The virtual event, hosted by RangeMe and ECRM, provides local suppliers the opportunity to connect with the Walgreens Merchandising team, share their products and receive feedback with the ultimate goal of being stocked on Walgreens shelves in their local areas.

The merchandising event will take place on December 12th and 13th and focus on products across grocery and household, apparel, beach, tourism and general merchandise, among other categories. Suppliers can find additional information about the virtual event and apply to attend here.

Building on the success of this year’s localization summit, Walgreens aims to bring in local businesses, to evaluate opportunities to build more locally relevant product offerings for Walgreens Puerto Rico customers and deeper collaboration with new suppliers for the future.

“As we continue reimagining how to best serve the needs of each of our communities to live out our purpose of more joyful lives through better health, we understand the importance of increasing local vendor representation in our Puerto Rico stores,” said Alethia Jackson, senior vice president for ESG and chief diversity, equity & inclusion officer for the U.S. at Walgreens Boots Alliance. “Our customers have a better in-store experience when our shelves reflect the diversity of their communities.”

All sourcing and product submissions will be made through RangeMe, the industry-standard online product discovery and sourcing platform. Walgreens will review submissions, and will invite selected suppliers for face-to-face virtual meetings with buyers on ECRM’s industry leading virtual meeting platform, ECRM Connect, where chosen suppliers can introduce new and innovative products into the marketplace. ECRM’s dedicated support team will help ensure that buyer and seller connections are executed seamlessly.