Macy’s Inc. Announces More Omni Innovations
Macy’s Inc. made an announcement about its omni-channel strategy for both Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s late yesterday, revealing plans to support Apple Pay, a pilot program for same-day delivery, an image search app for iPhones and several other innovations.
“Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s remain committed to operating at the forefront of innovation, as well as fostering a locally relevant shopping experience in every store,” said CEO Terry Lundgren in a statement. “Our goal remains to help our customers shop whenever, wherever and however they prefer, and to use the entire inventory of the company to satisfy demand. We are a multi-faceted retailer with stores, technology, Internet capability and mobile access that come together for our customers. They are at the center of all our decisions, and our ongoing research and development will continue to help us understand how to personally engage with them.”
Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s will support Apple Pay, the computer giant Apple’s new system for iPhone 6 models in which users integrate their credit and debit accounts with their phone for payment at retailers using contactless readers at the point of sale. Apple Pay launches in October and Macy’s says it will be among the first retailers to support it.
Same-day delivery pilot programs will begin this fall in eight Macy’s markets (Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New Jersey, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle and Washington, D.C.) and four Bloomingdale’s markets (Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose). The pilot program will use Deliv, which bills itself as a crowdsourced service offering same-day delivery for the price of three-day shipping.
The Macy’s Image Search technology is an iPhone app that was developed at macys.com’s San Francisco-based Idea Lab. Consumers take photos of apparel they see anywhere and the app finds similar items for purchase online at macys.com.
Bloomingdale’s stores in Century City, San Francisco and Palo Alto, Calif.; Short Hills, NJ; and Garden City, NY now have “smart fitting rooms,” in which customers can use wall-mounted tablets to hail sales associates, see other sizes and colors, product reviews and suggestions to complete a look. The new Palo Alto store has tablets in every men’s and women’s dressing room.
Other programs include better shopping apps for mobile devices, mobile wallets for finding and storing coupons and handheld point-of-sale devices in some stores (in Georgia and New Jersey). And finally, the Buy Online Pickup in Store (BOPS) program that was tested last fall is now rolling out to all Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores.
