Nordstrom has teamed up with The Folklore Group to help build a more equitable marketplace and supply chain.
Through the e-commerce tool The Folklore Connect platform, Nordstrom will be able to identify and engage with brands founded by Black, Latinx, Asian and other people of color. The platform, which launched last year, provides software for inclusive brands to manage and scale their wholesale businesses, and gives retailers a marketplace to discover and shop those brands.
In 2020, Nordstrom committed to deliver $500 million in sales from brands owned, operated or designed by Black and Latinx individuals by 2025. A year later Nordstrom was the first retailer to sign a 10-year agreement with the 15 Percent Pledge, which was launched to address racial inequities in retail. Through the pledge, the department store committed to buy ten times more merchandise from Black-owned and -founded businesses by 2030.
In 2022, Nordstrom reached $247 million in retail sales as part of those goals.
“Nordstrom has a long history of curating new and emerging brands to offer an ever evolving and relevant product assortment for our customers. They expect that we deliver a sense of inspiration and discovery with high-quality products from diverse brands,” Brian Roberts, vice president of Brand Programs at Nordstrom, said in a statement. “We are grateful for our partnership with The Folklore Group, which provides us with additional resources to discover and connect with new-to-Nordstrom brands in support of our ambitions to address marketplace equity.”
Nordstrom is also renewing its supplier diversity program, which tracks and supports qualifying suppliers across areas of its business, according to its website. The company is looking to increase diversity in collaborations with its private-label bands, stating “we need to improve here.”
The Folklore Group launched in 2018, and currently has over 100 brands on its Connect platform including Ashya, Nalebe and Vavvoune.
