Macy's expanding mobile technology capabilities

New York City Macy’s said Tuesday it has adopted new mobile technologies that will allow the department store retailer’s customers to connect to Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores and online sites.

With Macy’s new comprehensive mobile strategy, both Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s shoppers can use Internet-capable mobile devices to visit Macys.com and Bloomingdales.com, where they will now see larger and clearer images and click-through buttons so using the sites are faster and easier.

Macy’s said the technology detects the type of mobile device a shopper is using and customizes the presentation of Macys.com and Bloomingdales.com to that customer.

Macy’s has launched an upgraded iShop application for iPhone. The new app loads faster, can be navigated more easily and integrates in real-time with Macys.com to provide an improved mobile shopping experience.

Also, Macy’s has begun piloting the use of shop kick -- a new location-based shopping app -- at about 150 stores in the New York; Los Angeles; San Francisco; and Chicago markets. By downloading shopkick free from the iPhone App Store, Macy’s customers earn reward points as well as receive special offers.

“For our company, mobile is a way to make shopping more convenient and it helps build strong relationships with customers of our stores and online sites,” said Peter Sachse, Macy’s chief marketing officer and chairman of Macys.com. “We are seeing an increasing proportion of our online site traffic coming from mobile devices and we expect that proportion will grow rapidly as we develop and adopt new technology to embrace our mobile customer.”