Lola co-founders Alexandra Friedman and Jordana Kier have been talking to Walmart over a potential retail partnership for over a year now. The company, Thich focuses on female reproductive care products have struck a deal with Walmart that will allow them to put their products on Walmart shelves.
This partnership changes Lola from a direct-to-consumer brand to an omnichannel one. This will also put their products on the shelves of over 4600 Walmart stores, as well as on walmart.com.
Walmart is the biggest US retailer and a majority of women shop at Walmart every according to Friedman and Kier. So this deal is a valuable expansion for the five-year-old feminine care startup.
In an exclusive Forbes interview, Friedman said “It’s more important than ever to get these essential products to women, and make sure they can easily and safely purchase these products,”
The first Lola products started appearing on walmart.com at the end of March, and on shelves in the first weekend of April.
“The existing need for period products has been compounded during this crisis,” Friedman said. “We want them on shelves, on Walmart.com. We want to get as many as we possibly can to women in need.”
For the last four years, Lola has had a give-back program with I Support the Girls, a nonprofit that donates feminine care products to shelters and prisons, and they recently reached a 5 million donated products mark, With march being among the busiest months with the non-profit fulfilling more request than any other time they have been working to whether, says Kier. “We’ve committed to donating a million products this month,” she said.
Since its launch in 2015, they have learned that 72% of women like to customize their assortment of period products. Their customers have been mixing and matching their products of different sizes according to their needs. So it was important to them to extend that ability to the Walmart partnership too.