Macy’s invests in stores

Macy’s is focusing on its brick-and-mortar experience as part of a broader omnichannel effort.

As part of an event where the department store retailer brought together nearly 800 brand partners in New York, it provided updates on several key initiatives. One of these was Macy’s Growth50 initiative, which provided additional capital to 50 stores across the country received additional capital to enhance the customer experience and create a more vibrant and productive shopping destination.

In 2019, Macy’s added 100 stores to the Growth50 initiative. These stores have an elevated environment and expanded and curated merchandise assortments. The locations also feature improved customer service through added colleague positions and new technology. Improvements were based on customer feedback and the successful Growth50 initiatives. Work in the next 100 stores is expected to be fully complete in fall 2019.

The 150 stores comprise approximately 50% of Macy’s store sales. With the continued success of this initiative, Macy’s plans to add additional locations in 2020.

In 2019, Macy’s also expanded its Backstage off-price concept to another 50 stores for a total of more than 200 locations across the country. The company also recently opened a dedicated Backstage distribution center in Columbus, Ohio, which operates on the Google Cloud platform to provide improved efficiency, speed, and scale to support the continued growth of the off-price business. Macy’s expects to continue the expansion of Backstage across the country in 2020.

Earlier in October, Macy’s re-launched its same-day delivery service available to shoppers in 30 markets nationwide. To find eligible products, customers can enter their ZIP code and filter search results by same-day delivery. At checkout, they can choose same-day delivery and if the order is placed by 12 p.m. local time, Monday through Saturday, or 10 a.m. local time on Sunday, they will receive the items the same day. If eligible orders are placed after the cut-off times, they will be delivered the following day.

In addition, Macy's will partner with wedding planning site Zola to launch a wedding registry pilot partnership in November. More than 1,500 of Macy's private brand and exclusive SKUs across textiles, top of table and housewares will be added into Zola's merchandise assortment. The technology Macy's developed as part of this partnership will enable customers’ orders on Zola to be fulfilled by Macy's.

Other notable activities reviewed at the event include:
•    Macy’s continues to grow the SKUs and brands offered on macys.com with its vendor direct fulfillment model, and expects to reach its goal of adding 1 million vendor direct SKUs on macys.com in 2019.

•    The new “Style Inspo” feature on the Macy’s consumer app enables customers to find personalized looks after taking a brief style quiz and swiping left and right on pictures to build a profile of style preferences. The rotating daily feed of outfits can be saved to a shopping list, purchased or shared on social media. 

•    This fall, Macy’s is expanding the #MacysLove Challenge, a monthly sweepstakes where five winners will be selected at random to win a $200 Macy’s gift card by sharing their best Macy’s style or outfit on social media tagged with the official hashtags #MacysLove and #MacysSweepstakes. Customers will have the ability to discover and shop all of the submitted items on macys.com.

•    Earlier this year, Macy’s Fashion Academy was launched to offer best-in-class development opportunities for Macy’s merchant organization. This learning and development program was created with Parsons School of Design in a partnership.

•    Macy’s seventh annual “Buy a Coat and We’ll Donate One” begins Wednesday, Oct. 9 to Monday, Oct. 14. For every coat purchased online and in-store, Macy’s will donate a brand-new coat, up to 35,000 with an average retail value of $40-$100 each, to nonprofit Clothes4Souls.

“Macy’s is committed to being America’s store for life,” said Hal Lawton, Macy’s president. “Working together with our most important brand partners, we are focused on building lifetime relationships with our shared customers and creating long-term value for our shareholders.”

Macy's operates approximately 640 stores in 43 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam.