Macy’s might represent the quintessential brick-and-mortar department store in many ways, but it is determined not to allow that image stop it from entering the omnichannel space. Accordingly, it is experimenting with novel ways to bring digital and online offerings into its stores, through close collaborations with both famous digital companies and small retail operators.
With the Market @ Macy’s, the retailer will install pop-up stores within its stores, dedicated to small and emerging brands. To identify and highlight these brands, Macy’s is working with Facebook. The social media site helps the retailer find brands that want to be installed in its stores, from among its thousands of advertisers. In addition, Facebook will run advertising that features the approximately 150 e-commerce brands and explains to shoppers that they also can find those items in select Macy’s stores.
The initiative is planned to launch in November, just in time for the holiday shopping season. The stores that contain the pop-up concept shops are in large markets, including New York, Las Vegas, and San Francisco.
The Market @ Macy’s is not its only foray into an omnichannel setting though. Macy’s also has invested in a startup company that designs retail-oriented software, and it bought a “concept shop” called Story.
But the shops within its stores also sell products that Macy’s shoppers are likely to find familiar, such as home goods, clothing, and beauty products. For example, the socially responsible hat company Love Your Melon quickly signed up for the initiative, determined to get its fashionable accessories on the heads, and in the minds, of many more consumers.

Discussion Questions:
1. How are these omnichannel efforts likely to influence Macy’s existing brand image?
2. What other options does Macy’s have for expanding its digital presence while maintaining its existing store channels?

 

 

Source: Adrianne Pasquarelli, “Macy’s Taps Facebook for Holiday Effort,” AdAge, September 18, 2018