Nordstrom is once again supporting Black Business Month through the month of August. Last year, the retailer launched its pilot program and created #BuyBlack pop-up markets to highlight a special curation of local Black businesses. The initiative drove $14 million in sales of Black-owned or founded brands at Nordstrom in August 2022, the company said.
This year, the retailer teamed up with the 15 Percent Pledge to expand and curate its pop-up markets to 13 Nordstrom stores, featuring local Black businesses across 11 cities including New York, Atlanta, Charlotte, Durham, Houston, Washington DC, Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle and Miami.
“Our partnership is rooted in the mutual desire to drive equity across retail, and the #BuyBlack series is an exciting next step in their commitment to support Black entrepreneurs,” LaToya Williams-Belfort, executive director of the Fifteen Percent Pledge, said in a statement.
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In 2021, Nordstrom joined the 15 Percent Pledge — Aurora James’ nonprofit, which she launched in 2020 with the goal to call on major retailers and corporations to commit a minimum of 15% of their annual purchasing power to Black-owned businesses in order to create a more equitable economic future. Since then, 29 retailers and strategic partners have taken the pledge, which has helped shift more than $14 billion dollars of annual revenue to Black-owned businesses.
Insiders, however, are concerned diversity progress is stalling as corporations continue to fall short on their commitments in recent years.
Dr. Dwayne Edwards, founder, Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design, took the FN CEO Summit stage in May noting that companies only started making efforts in the last decade to diversify their workforces. “Remove the word initiative from everything related to DEI. Why can’t it be the way you do business and not an initiative that has an expiration date. There were a lot of promises made in 2020 with expiration dates. If you were really authentic, it would be just the way you do business,” he said.
This month, in addition to Nordstrom, the Fifteen Percent Pledge x Moda Operandi partnered for a second time on special Trunk Show for Black Business Month featuring a curation of Black designers, ceramists, and visual artists across the home and fine jewelry space.
