Delivery giant FedEx has partnered with Accion opportunity fund to launch its own E-commerce Learning Lab program.
The FedEx guided program aims to aid diverse business owners who may be trying to expand or develop e-commerce operations as a result of the pandemic.
The program will provide hands-on training from experts in the e-commerce field to 150 minority and female small business owners through the use of various workshops and other one-on-one training. These business owners will also be given free technical support to help create and or maintain any of their virtual operations or stores. These operations range from marketing and promotions to order management and fulfillment.
The chief marketing and communications officer for FedEx released a statement addressing the fact that the pandemic has impacted many small business owners, especially women and people of color. She goes on to say that this program will work to even the playing field among women and minority business owners. She also mentions that this is a perfect time to launch this project as eCommerce volumes have continued to grow. She closes by saying that the launch of the FedEx Learning Lab will help businesses meet customer needs in new ways while also providing programming that will allow businesses to effectively operate through these unpredictable times.
The program is set to run over five months starting in September. This timeline allows FedEx to support the participants of the program with holiday promotions and technical support with managing orders during the holiday.
Participants must be relatively new businesses with no online presence, and they must produce shelf-stable general merchandise or food products. The participants also cannot earn more than $500,000
CEO of the Action Opportunity, Fund Luz Urrutia, said that this program will allow for the opportunity to help bring awareness to entrepreneurs who have been going unnoticed. She also says that access to resources and opportunities will set these businesses up for future growth and generate more economic possibilities for a diverse range of businesses.
This article was penned by Jonathan P. Wright. Jonathan is a freelance writer for multiple mainstream publications and CVO of RADIOPUSHERS. You can read more of his work by clicking here.
