What is Macy's? Macy's Review, Features

Macy's is a subsidiary of United Department Stores (United Department Stores acquired Macy's in 1994). Macy's is a well-known chain department store in the United States, mainly selling clothing, shoes, accessories, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products and household items.

About Macy's

Macy's flagship store is located in Herald Square in New York City. When Macy's opened on 7th Avenue in 1924, it was advertised as the "largest store in the world". Macy's also has two national flagship stores, one in Union Square in San Francisco and one on State Street in Chicago.

As of November 3, 2018, Macy's had 875 stores totaling approximately 128 million square feet in 44 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

Corporate philosophy: Customers are the top priority, which is the core corporate philosophy of Macy's. Through professional staff, all-round sales channels and convenient network platforms, we provide a wide variety of products and friendly services to bring unparalleled shopping pleasure to all consumers. (Customers are the source of profit for the company, and employees are the key to unlock this source.)

Iconic Brand

1. Macy's: Macy's is an American department store, an iconic brand and a leader in the retail industry. Through its stores, e-commerce websites and mobile applications, Macy's offers a unique experience and variety, including the most sought-after collections of exclusive and fashion brands.

2. Bloomingdale's: Bloomingdale's is "the store with a difference," known nationally as a contemporary and of-the-moment brand focused on providing exceptional service and experience to customers both in-store and online.

3. Bluemercury: Bluemercury is a friendly neighborhood beauty store where customers can get honest, professional beauty advice. The brand is recognized as the largest and fastest growing luxury beauty products and spa retail chain in the United States.

Macy's in China

1. Macy's development history in China:

(1) As early as 2012, Macy’s invested US$15 million in China’s fashion e-commerce company Jiapin.com and authorized it to be Macy’s only partner in China. However, shortly after its acquisition, Jiapin.com went bankrupt and laid off employees, and Macy’s first entry into China was temporarily halted.

(2) In August 2015, Macy’s and Hong Kong’s Fung Group jointly established Macy’s China, entering the Chinese market again. Before the “Double 11” shopping festival of that year, Macy’s entered Tmall International and began to sell products online in China, attracting 300,000 fans in the early stages. In 2017, Macy’s opened its official Chinese website, with technical support from Alibaba, and began to implement the “Tmall + official website” dual-channel strategy. At that time, Dustin Jones, CEO of Macy’s China, said confidently: “No matter how much resources we have to invest in China, no matter how long it takes, we must take root in China and we will not give up.”

(3) On June 12, 2018, Macy's, a famous American department store chain known as the "world's largest store", closed its official website in China. This means that Macy's no longer has its own sales channels in the Chinese market. Chinese consumers can only purchase products directly from the United States through its official website in the United States and its Tmall overseas flagship store.

2. Reasons for Macy's failure in China:

(1) The product is not suitable for Chinese consumers:

Due to the different aesthetics and consumption habits between Chinese and American consumers, many styles that are popular abroad are not suitable for the Chinese market. Although Macy’s has made a distinction between the two markets, the products on its official Chinese website are not consistent with those sold in the United States, but Macy’s understanding of the Chinese market is obviously not deep.

Macy's official website in China has fewer clothes and relatively older styles. Consumers who are fond of foreign brands rarely choose to buy goods from the official website in China. In addition, compared with other similar brands in China, the prices of Macy's products are not much competitive.

In the Chinese market, where both domestic and cross-border e-commerce are more mature, consumers have more choices. According to consumer feedback, Macy's China official website is different from the US official website in terms of product quantity and discount strength, and the frequency of new products is slow, which cannot meet the needs of Chinese consumers for novel products.

(2) Delivery efficiency affects shopping experience:

One of the important reasons why Macy's has been able to gain a foothold in the United States is that it has taken advantage of its many physical stores and transformed them into distribution centers. The physical store inventory warehouses have been equipped with online order distribution center functions, which not only better manages inventory but also enables the sharing of store inventory information, thus optimizing and distributing scarce goods.

However, Messi does not have a physical store in China, which does not fully reflect the advantages of unified online and offline management and coordination. On the contrary, since a large number of goods need to be sent from Hong Kong and the United States to China, the logistics time is 8 to 20 days. This is unimaginable for Chinese customers who are accustomed to Taobao's 2 to 3 days of delivery and JD's same-day delivery. Today's consumers have higher and higher requirements for service and shopping experience. If the delivery efficiency is low, it will greatly affect the consumer's shopping experience.

(3) Brand building is not truly localized:

As the founder of American department stores, Macy's has made great achievements in brand building. In 1924, Macy's launched the annual "Thanksgiving Day Parade", which has continued to this day and has become one of the traditions of New York City. However, in the Chinese market, Macy's brand awareness is still not high.

In fact, Macy's has never really entered the Chinese market. It has not opened any large flagship stores in the mainland; it has always used the brand name Macy's on its official Chinese website, instead of using the Chinese brand name that is more conducive to communication. In terms of brand marketing, it has not adopted the effective advertising and promotion approach in the Chinese market. Compared with the popularity and popularity of Wal-Mart in major cities, Macy's is almost a dark horse in China. Some netizens even joked: "When I first heard about Macy's, I thought it was a store opened by football star Messi!"

In addition, in September 2017, after the incident in which a manager of Macy’s department store in the United States taught employees to treat customers with Asian accents differently and told them not to sell things to Chinese people, Macy’s reputation among Chinese consumers plummeted, and it has not taken strong public relations measures to restore its brand image since then.

(4) Although Dustin Jones, CEO of Macy’s China, said when entering the Chinese market: “Macy’s entered China in order to become China’s Macy’s”, after several years, Macy’s is still the Macy’s that does not understand China. Not only has it failed to localize its brand, but its brand image has also collapsed, forcing Macy’s to withdraw from China.

Development History

-In 1858, Mr. Rowland Hussey Macy opened a store named RH Macy & Co. at the intersection of 14th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan, New York.

-In 1877, Roland Haas Messi died.

-In 1893, RH Macy & Co. was purchased by brothers Isidor Straus and Nathan Straus.

-In 1902, Macy's flagship store moved to the intersection of 34th Street, Broadway and Seventh Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York, and has remained there ever since. Macy's has become a gathering place for New Yorkers and tourists.

-In 1994, United Department Stores acquired Macy's.

-As of 2006, Macy's has 850 stores across the United States, making it a truly national brand.

-In 2012, Macy's ranked 417th on the Fortune Global 500 list.

-In 2015, Macy's introduced a new backstage retail store concept, which focuses on discounted goods and will compete with other discount stores in the United States in the future.

-In 2016, Macy's entered the Chinese market in partnership with Tmall Global.

-In August 2016, Macy's announced that it would close nearly 100 Macy's stores.

-In January 2017, Macy's continued to announce that it would close 68 stores by the middle of the year, and the remaining department stores would be closed after the lease contracts or specific agreements expire.

-On July 19, 2018, the 2018 Fortune Global 500 list was released, with Macy's ranking 473rd.

-In December 2018, the World Brand Lab released the "2018 World's Top 500 Brands" list, and Macy's ranked 363rd.