‘15 Percent Pledge’ founder challenges big retailers to diversify shelves

15% Pledge is a nonprofit organization that asks retailers to dedicate 15% of their inventory to Black-owned businesses. Brother Vellies Creative Director Aurora James joins Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel to weigh in.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: Welcome back to Yahoo Finance "On the Move." Have you heard about the 15 Percent Pledge? It is a pledge that businesses are being asked to make that pledges 15% of their shelf space to be stocked by companies and suppliers which are owned by African-Americans and help build the African-American community. But it's much more than just that.

Aurora James is the Creative Director of Brother Vellies and Founder of the 15 Percent Pledge. She's joining us now to tell us more about the pledge and who signed on to it. Welcome to the program, Aurora.

AURORA JAMES: Hi, Adam. Thank you for having me today. The 15 Percent Pledge is exactly what you said. Basically black people make up almost 15% of the population in the United States of America. And so we're asking major retailers to commit 15% of their shelf space or purchasing power to black-owned businesses.

- And as I understand it, there is an exciting announcement that happened yesterday. Sephora is actually the first company to sign on to this pledge and commit to that promise. Can you tell us how that relationship started? And was it because of the Fifteen Percent Pledge pressure or do you feel like that was already in the works?

AURORA JAMES: Yeah, absolutely. So our first four that we actually asked to commit were Sephora, Shopbop, Target, and Whole Foods. Sephora was the first one to step up to the plate. I'm so excited about it.

And it happened pretty quickly. I posted on Instagram, actually, about the pledge and what I was asking retailers to do. And within five days, Sephora had contacted me and we started meeting about the pledge. They worked over the weekend really hard to figure out how they could meet those goals in a really profound way as well, not just writing these purchase orders and bringing the brands on, but making sure that they are actually going to be supporting them in a meaningful way.

And I couldn't be more proud of them. They're just the first. And I think that they're the perfect company to really kick this off.

JULIE HYMAN: Aurora, as you mentioned, this has been lightning fast. You posted it on Instagram and now it has become a part of the movement that we are seeing sweep across the country. As a black business owner yourself, you have a fashion company, shoes, handbags, things that are sourced from black communities around the world.

How are you viewing this current moment, and particularly the speed with which your suggestion here has kind of picked up?

AURORA JAMES: Yeah, I mean, I think it's been really tough for all of us, right? And with a lot of these businesses for me, I was getting emails that were like we stand with you. And I was reading it, but I wasn't necessarily feeling it. And so I wanted to put an actual quantitative value and a number to what support might look like from these retailers. And that number, based on the population in the United States, is 15%.

And I think that people just wanted an actionable thing that they could really do and get behind. So there's been a huge groundswell. We have almost 100,000 people who signed the petition. These are customers of these retailers. And these are people who are excited and really wanting and demanding them to take the 15 Percent Pledge.

JULIA LA ROCHE: Hi, Aurora. It's Julia la Roche. And thank you so much for starting this movement. One thing that really stood out to me in the Instagram post was you mentioned what would happen if Whole Foods, for example, committed to this. And you really unpack these kind of ripple effects that you can have from taking such a pledge.

I was hoping you could share with our viewers what this could look like if you see more big name retailers take the pledge. What are the bigger impacts that we could see, even on the economy?

AURORA JAMES: Yeah, absolutely. So just in those four that I first addressed-- Shopbop, Sephora, Target, and Whole Foods-- that could mean almost $15 billion into the black community via black-owned businesses. I know that there is just a fraction of VC money right now that goes to black-owned businesses. If someone like Target really jumps on board and commits to hitting this 15%, there's going to be a clear demand in the marketplace for black-owned businesses. It's going to make VCs take notice in a way that quite frankly they haven't up until now.

And I think collectively, black people have a lot of spending power. Everyone knows that. And I think that we're really going to see black consumers really wanting to see what these retailers are going to do here. And the best way to get money into these black communities is through black-owned businesses.

So I'm really excited to see that starting to happen. And I think that it's a shift that needs to happen. I'm not asking these businesses to do it overnight. I'm asking them to build out a clear strategy with benchmarks that they can hit along the way, and make sure that we do it properly. The 15 Percent Pledge is here to help and support them and assist them in that process.

And we're going to be working really closely with Sephora over the next couple of years to make sure that there is accountability there too. And you know what? They're excited about it. We're excited about it. It's a good thing.

- I want to touch upon the VC pipeline, because as you mentioned, only 1% of VC dollars went to black startup founders in 2018. And, of course, that number is much lower when you think about black females. Just thinking about the scalability, one of the issues or hurdles that some of these retailers may face is some of these startups that have not been backed by VC, that have not seen exponential growth, they might not be able to scale quickly and actually be on store shelves. How are you really thinking that through?

AURORA JAMES: Yeah, absolutely. That's such a good question. And I think that's something that we really addressed early on with Sephora, and Sephora brought to us as well. It costs a lot of money to be in all the doors of Sephora. So for us, we're really going to have to start also connecting with VCs, and making sure that they are looking at the brands that these businesses are trying to scale. That's absolutely critical.

I know even for me, as a black business owner, I created Brother Vellies with $3,500 at the flea market in the Lower East Side. We've gone on to sell millions of dollars of shoes. I'm lucky that that has happened. But it's been without VC support. So I think we also need to start asking ourselves why these VCs aren't looking at black businesses, and calling for that to change.

ADAM SHAPIRO: I want to point out to Aurora that the website, www.15percentpledge.org is a way that people watching this right now can get involved. I'm curious, has there been a discussion to help us, the consumer, who might want to support this with our dollars? Some kind of label that says this product, black-- produced by a firm that is owned by African-Americans or black people?

AURORA JAMES: Yeah, absolutely. So we are going to start working on a seal that'll denote a black-owned business. If they want to have that designation, absolutely. And I'm excited about that.

And beyond signing the petition, which obviously we would love everyone to do, as consumers, I'm really asking for all of us to start looking in our own closets and our own shops and our own refrigerators and checking for black owned businesses and saying how can we support in that way as well?

ADAM SHAPIRO: Aurora James is the Brother Vellies Creative Director. Thank you for being here. We're going to be right back after this.