Black Friday won’t end in November this year.
The Nod, a community-based digital organization aimed at empowering Black, Canadian businesses, launched its Real Black Friday tour on Nov. 28. The 10-city tour across Canada, which started at Edmonton innovation hub Edmonton Unlimited, is aimed at spreading awareness of The Nod, its synonymous app, and furthering its long-term goal of recirculating millions of dollars into Black Canadian businesses and support Black entrepreneurs.
The launch event in Edmonton featured 32 majority Black-owned businesses, which offered a range of products and services sorted into appropriately themed boxes that users could purchase through The Nod’s app.
“The ultimate goal is that we are contributing as a community to the economy.”
Chinaemerem Ogbonna,
The Nod Foundation
“There’s always been Black Friday, and we were like, how do we put a twist on that?” said The Nod co-founder and The Nod Foundation CEO Chinaemerem Ogbonna. “How do we make sure that within the community we are thinking about where our money is going, and being very intentional, so that we’re spending intentionally, and we’re enabling economic growth within the community?”
Black Friday has grown over the years as a marketing tactic, driving post-Thanksgiving and pre-Christmas shopping in the US. Over time, businesses in Canada have caught the bug and often hold huge sales. But with US e-commerce giants controlling much of the online marketplace and offering hefty discounts, it can be a struggle for Canadian consumers to find domestic products and sales.
“I think we couldn’t have timed it better in terms of the narrative that’s out there, and the economy, and that’s what we’re trying to do too,” Ogbonna said. “The ultimate goal is that we are contributing as a community to the economy, contributing to the GDP, making sure that we are playing our part, and making sure that these are formal businesses … who are on the same level playing field as any other organizations or big corporations that do the same thing.”
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Nod co-founder and CEO Ikenna Onuorah said that staging a tour like the Real Black Friday is vital to making the work of the organization feel tangible and impactful.
“It’s all purchased online through the app, but this activation brings it closer to the community, so they can feel, experience, interact. Businesses on the app can also interact with potential buyers. That connection, that’s what this event’s about,” Onuorah said.
The Nod launched in June 2024. The company’s name, according to its LinkedIn page, comes from the “nod from another Black person in a public place … that nod that says ‘I see you.” The company’s mission is to make “The Nod way bigger than just a head tilt.”
The Nod app, the main avenue to engage in the ecosystem the organization is building through online storefronts, networking, knowledge and resource sharing, and more, launched almost exactly a year later. The app has just under 1,000 users, and has recirculated $126,000, according to its website. Its founders expect those numbers to grow through the nationwide tour.
Onuorah said The Nod aims to encourage $100 million in spending across 500 Canadian, Black-owned businesses over four years.
Of that $100 million, one percent will be given to The Nod Foundation, a registered non-profit that helps formalize Black businesses and take them from an idea to a legitimate, registered enterprise.
City of Edmonton economic development specialist Claudio Carvajal, speaking at the Real Black Friday launch, emphasized that The Nod’s work will help to grow the city, too.
“Whether it’s through reducing systemic barriers, improving customer experience, or supporting initiatives like the Migrant Action Plan [a municipal program in Edmonton that supports newcomers], our goal is to ensure that everyone, regardless of background, can participate fully in Edmonton’s economy,” Carvajal said.
“This is where our work aligns so closely with The Nod … you are doing something that complements the city’s efforts in a powerful way, helping business owners get formal, get digital, and get connected,” he said.
The next stops on the Real Black Friday Tour will be Calgary in January 2026, followed by Vancouver in February, and Quebec in March.
BetaKit’s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.
Images courtesy Tim Rauf for BetaKit.