- Despite being severely impacted by the coronavirus outbreak, many of the world's biggest retailers are stepping up to help those most in need.
- LVMH, Amazon, Walmart, and Inditex are among the industry leaders that are making donations or creating products to help fight the pandemic.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Parts of the retail sector globally are being battered by the coronavirus pandemic as many companies are forced to shutter stores and take a hit on sales, but despite this, some are still doing their bit to support those most in need.
LVMH, Amazon, Walmart, Inditex, and H&M are among the world's biggest retail companies to be making donations, supporting local communities, or creating products for healthcare and hospital workers to support the fight against coronavirus.
The list below is by no means exhaustive but looks at what some of the biggest retailers are doing to help right now:
SEE ALSO: CVS, Walmart, and 14 other 'essential' businesses that are desperate for workers right now
LVMH is ordering face masks in from China and using its perfume factories to make hand sanitizer
The world's largest luxury conglomerate has been doing its part to support the world during the coronavirus pandemic.
In January, the company donated 16 million renminbi ($2.2 million) to The Red Cross Society of China. Two months later, in March, as the virus had spread through Europe and supplies came under pressure, LVMH announced that it would start making alcohol-free hand sanitizer in its factories, which were normally used to manufacture its perfumes. The hand sanitizer would then be sent to French health authorities free of charge, it said.
//instagram.com/p/B97FXEMieWG/embed
Width: 540px
Over the weekend, the company pledged to address the shortage of surgical masks in France by ordering millions of masks from China to give to the French health service.
The company said it would handle the logistics and distribution of bringing some 40 million masks into France over the next four weeks, and cover the costs of the first 10 million masks.
Zara's parent company is investigating using its factories to create gowns for Spanish hospitals
Inditex, the world's largest fashion retailer that is best known for its Zara brand, recently said it was looking at how it could switch manufacturing at its textile factories to create hospital gowns.
The company has also offered up its logistics and supplier network to the Spanish government to enable the delivery of key items such as masks, gloves, goggles, and caps to hospitals around the country.
L'Oréal is producing hand sanitizer for hospitals, care homes, and pharmacies
L'Oréal announced a major initiative to support the French and European health authorities, as well as those most in need, during the coronavirus pandemic in a press release on Wednesday.
This included producing hand sanitizer in its factories and distributing these products free of charge to hospitals, care homes, and pharmacies; donating money to non-profit organizations that help the most vulnerable; and freezing payments from its partners – hair salons or small perfume shops, for example – in a bid to protect small and medium-sized businesses.
Other leading beauty companies have stepped up and made similar pledges by creating hand sanitizer or donating hygiene products to those in need.
Luxury brands such as Moncler, Richemont, Kering, Hermès, Prada and Versace are donating millions of dollars to fight the pandemic
Some of the biggest names in luxury have pledged millions of dollars to fund research of Covid-19 and donated money to non-profit organizations that honor frontline medical workers.
One of the biggest donors, Moncler, gave €10 million ($10.9 million) towards the construction of a new hospital in Milan, according to Business Insider's Dominic-Madori Davis.
Prada donated two intensive care and resuscitation units to three of Milan's main hospitals and is among the Italian luxury brands including Gucci's parent company Kering, to be creating and distributing masks and hospital gowns around Italy.
H&M is creating protective equipment for hospital workers
H&M, one of the world's largest fashion retailers, is using its global supply chain to produce and distribute protective clothing for hospital and health care workers.
It has also donated $500,000 to a COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, which was created by the World Health Organization to raise money towards the work that is being doen to prevent, detect, and respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
Alibaba's billionaire founder shipped masks and testing kits to the US
Jack Ma, the richest man in China and the founder of ecommerce giant Alibaba, pledged to donate 500,000 masks and 1 million testing kits to the US. He recently shared photos on Twitter of these shipments making their way over to America.
Ma has also pledged around $16.5 million towards the development of a vaccine to cure coronavirus through different organizations.
Walmart is opening drive-thru coronavirus testing sites
Walmart has partnered with the federal government to offer drive-thru coronavirus testing sites in the parking lots at some of its stores.
So far, two testing sites have opened up at two Chicago locations and are testing first responders and health workers. In the future, the plan is to scale this out to other stores and offer the testing to the general public too.
The US retail giant has also pledged $25 million to support organizations that are working on finding ways to detect, manage, and prevent the virus, as well as non-profits that are supporting the most vulnerable.
Read more:Walmart just opened its first drive-thru coronavirus testing sites. Here's what they look like.
Amazon is helping to distribute at-home coronavirus testing kits in Seattle and has pledged $7 million to support local communities in the US
Amazon has pledged $7 million to support the most vulnerable communities in the Washington DC and Seattle area via non-profit organizations.
It is also working with a group of public health researchers, which are backed by the Gates Foundation, to deliver and collect coronavirus at-home testing kits to residents of Seattle's Kings County.
Moreover, it's offering $20 million worth of credits and technical support to its Amazon Web Services customers, such as small companies or research institutions, that are using its cloud services to tackle the crisis.
Kroger is donating $3 million to non-profits that help the most vulnerable get access to food
Kroger is donating $3 million to two non-profit organizations that help provide America's most vulnerable populations with food via its Zero Hunger/Zero Waste Foundation.
"The coronavirus pandemic may result in more of our neighbors struggling with food insecurity during this challenging time – and we want to help. That is why The Kroger Co. Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Foundation is directing $3 million, its largest commitment to date, to rapidly deploy hunger-relief resources to food-insecure communities across the country," Keith Dailey, Kroger's group vice president of corporate affairs, said in a statement to the press earlier this month.
Target is donating $10 million to various relief funds
Target has pledged $10 million to help various local, national, and global organizations during the coronavirus crisis.
It has promised to give $1 million to its most impacted employees, $5 million to state and community nonprofits supporting local populations, $3 million to national nonprofits such as Feeding America, and $1 million to global organizations such as UNICEF.