Nordstrom Partners With The Folklore Group to Grow Minority-Owned Brands

Nordstrom has teamed with The Folklore Group as part of the retailer’s commitment to build a more equitable marketplace and reduce barriers to access for diverse suppliers, reports Yahoo. Through The Folklore Connect platform, Nordstrom’s merchants will be better able to identify and engage with wholesale fashion and lifestyle brands founded by Black, Latinx, Asian and other people of color, as well as brands in emerging markets. Nordstrom will also invite its brand partners to join The Folklore Connect for increased visibility in the industry. Nordstrom is one of the largest retailers to partner with The Folklore Group, which also works with retailers such as Revolve, Shopbop, and Urban Outfitters.

The Folklore Group, which launched in 2018, is a commerce company that aims to empower diverse brands in emerging markets. In 2022, The Folklore Group launched The Folklore Connect to provide software for diverse and sustainable brands to manage and scale their wholesale businesses and retailers with a marketplace to discover and show these brands, which have historically been geographically or racially marginalized from connecting with global retailers. Currently, the Connect platform has more than 100 brands including Ashya, Nalebe, and Vavvoune.

Total Retail's Take: Nordstrom and The Folklore Group are joining forces to bring the best in global fashion closer to the upscale department store's customer, according to a company press release. More brands and retailers are working to diversify their product assortments and source from minority-owned businesses. Nordstrom began prioritizing these efforts in 2020 with a commitment to delivering $500 million in retail sales from brands owned, operated or designed by Black and Latinx individuals by 2025. Nordstrom signed the Fifteen Percent Pledge in 2021, committing continued support to growing its purchases from businesses owned or founded by Black individuals tenfold by the end of 2030.

In 2022, Nordstrom made progress toward these goals, reaching $247 million in retail sales from Black and Latinx-owned and founded brands. Today, its customers can shop more than 250 brands in Black- and Latinx-owned and founded categories, the company states. The retailer's partnership with The Folklore Group provides "additional resources to discover and connect with new-to-Nordstrom brands in support of our ambitions to address marketplace equity," said Brian Roberts, vice president of brand programs at Nordstrom.