Macy's Top Three Omnichannel Tactics

By Jamie Grill-Goodman — August 18, 2015

Macy's introduced three omnichannel initiatives in its first quarter and reported positive progress on these at the close of the second quarter. 

"We are making progress in all of these fronts and staying focused on what we believe will drive our business," said Karen Hogue.

"Our omnichannel strategies are working well as customers increasingly shop and buy across multiple channels. We believe that our new organization structure is helping to accelerate digital growth, which continued to be very strong in the quarter," continued Hoguet.

Here are Macy's Top Three Omnichannel initiatives right now:
 

1.   Bluemercury Acquisition

Bluemercury joined Macy’s through acquisition in March 2015. Bluemercury was founded in 1999 and is widely recognized as the nation’s largest and fastest-growing luxury beauty products and spa retail chain. It can be found online at bluemercury.com. There are now 66 Bluemercury stores open and Hoguet said the company expects to have another 10 by yearend.
 
"We're working hard to improve the digital experience and strengthen the omnichannel capabilities," said Hoguet.
 

2.   Plenti Loyalty Program

 
Macy's new loyalty program Plenti launched on May 4. Plenti is a rewards program customers can join for free to earn and use points all with a single rewards card both online and in-store.
 
It is the first U.S. loyalty coalition involving major U.S. brands. Plenti offers opportunities to both incent Macy's current customers to buy more and also to bring new customers into Macy's who enter the Plenti program through the other participating brands.
 
In the first week, Macy's enrolled more than 2 million customers at Macy's.
 
"Macy's now has over seven million customers enrolled and we expect to generate incremental sales from these customers as well as new customers who enrolled in this program through other companies as points begin to accumulate and customers understand the value inherent in this loyalty program," commented Hoguet.
 

3.   International eCommerce

Macy's China Limited, a joint venture with Fung Retailing Ltd, has been formed and will start with an eCommerce pilot initiative on Tmall Global later this fall.
The joint venture will be based in Hong Kong and is 65% owned by Macy's and 35% by Fung Retailing. Macy’s China Limited will be led by Kent Anderson, a longstanding Macy’s Executive who was the Founder and long time President of Macy’s.com. No physical stores are planned for China at this time, but maybe considered in the future based on the company's experience in eCommerce.
Together with Fung Retailing, Macy's' is expected to invest approximately $25 million in these operations over the next 18 months.

The entry is expected to have an immaterial impact on the company's earnings this year and in 2016, Macy's expects the joint venture to generate sales of approximately $50 million.

"Our game plan is to start small and use a test and learn approach as we move forward. We also believe that by increasing the presence of Macy’s in China, we will actually help our business here as well both with the Chinese tourists as well as Chinese residents," said Hoguet.
 
Additionally, Hoguet mentioned Backstage, Macy's off-price pilot, will have its grand opening in the first stores in a few weeks.

"The picture you see is of a strong and progressive retailer that is Omnichannel in nature and intent on continuing our success," said Hoguet. "Make no mistake about that the fact that we're focused on growing and driving this business and in creating shareholder value on all fronts."