Macy’s rebrands with customer-focused brand platform
Macy’s is putting a big new emphasis on personalization, in-store and online.
The department store retailer is introducing a brand platform, called “Own Your Style,” which will offer individually curated assortments of products, as well as advice and shopping inspiration. Set to launch in March 2022, the theme will be fully integrated across all customer touchpoints including Macy’s e-commerce site, consumer app, social media and stores.
Specific features of “Own Your Style” will include digital and social-first experiences, branded content, sequenced storytelling, in-person expert advice, and personalized data-driven recommendations.
Digital experience
Macy’s will offer an upgraded digital experience featuring simplified global navigation, a refreshed search bar, and a personalized customer dashboard. The online experience will be centered around the new “Own Your Style” hub. Other features will include product carousels highlighting different categories, as well as new product photo grids that showcase items in a new layout with product videos.
Store experience
Stores will feature monthly “Own Your Style” and “Now Trending” pavilions, curated with current products and key items. Customers will receive style guidance from digital screens throughout the store, featuring visual product displays that include shoes and bags cross-merchandised with outfits to provide style advice directly on the floor.
Macy’s Style Crew
Macy's is reintroducing its "Style Crew." First launched in 2017, it a team of in-house experts that post unique, shoppable video and photo content to their own social and digital channels for Macy’s customers. Shoppers can click through the Style Crew members’ posts and land on the Macy’s e-commerce site to make purchases. The members will be eligible to earn commission for their participation.
Macy’s is positioning the platform within its larger “Polaris” strategy, which is designed to take the company into the future. Other initiatives include an emphasis on smaller, off-mall stores and digital acceleration, as well as private brands. Macy’s has said it expects private brands to represent 25% of its total sales by 2025.
“Style is unique to the individual. We will help our customers express their personal style through personalized data-driven recommendations and expert advice that will differentiate us in a cluttered marketplace,” said Rich Lennox, chief brand officer of Macy’s. “This brand transformation will enhance our customer’s shopping experience with more personal touchpoints and offer them true value and style that they can own.”
The new platform will feature products for customers of every ethnicity, size, gender identity, and ability. Macy’s associates will have a reimagined dress code that promotes self-expression.
Other digital curation plans
Macy’s also plans to launch a curated digital marketplace, in what it says is an effort to expand its assortment in existing categories and brands and introduce a range of new categories. The retailer will curate third-party retailers and brands to sell their products on macys.com and bloomingdales.com, with an expected rollout in the second half of 2022.
Macy’s is partnering with enterprise marketplace technology company Mirakl to launch the platform. The retailer intends to seamlessly integrate Mirakl’s dynamic platform capabilities into the Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s architecture, allowing the evolution of strategies over time. Mirakl’s tools will enable sellers to monitor, drive and grow their businesses within Macy’s curated marketplace.
As of Jan. 5, 2021, Macy’s operates 544 namesake stores.