Macy's

Macy's announced a sweeping reorganization fueled by big changes in how Americans shop. Both Macy's and Bloomingdale's, the department store's upscale sister chain, are restructuring their merchandising and marketing functions so that one unified merchandising and marketing organization — a combination of store and online buying — will support the entire Macy's business. The changes are designed to accelerate both store and digital growth.

Macy's, which traditionally kicks off the U.S. holiday shopping season with a nationally televised parade in Manhattan, will join a handful of other companies this year parading its ads on Facebook's fledgling video feeds. As the social media platform slowly rolls out its premium video offerings to advertisers, Macy's will launch its online video ads Thursday. "As we were anticipating Black Friday, we wanted to take a look at how the product evolved and try to figure out how to distribute our video in a balanced way," said Jennifer Kasper, Macy's group vice president for digital media and multicultural marketing.

Macy's and Bloomingdale's will expand their horizons by opening in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2018. Until now, Macy's has remained a domestic retailer while other brands, including Bloomingdale's, have expanded globally. The stores will open in the Al Maryah Central, a new regional shopping center on Al Maryah Island. It's a mixed-use 3.1 million-square-foot development with retail, cafes, restaurants, a cinema, health club, luxury hotel and residential towers.

Imagine spilling coffee on your way to a holiday party and needing a new shirt right away. Macy's has a solution: A quick Google search on your smartphone will tell you if that red sweater is stocked at a Macy's nearby, in your size, and at what price. Beginning in November, shoppers can search for an item on their phone and see what's stocked at their nearest Macy's location. Alongside the images are product details like price, size and color, directions to the store, and a link to the item on the retailer's website. 

The Black Friday fight is on with the announcement Tuesday that Macy's will open stores at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving, two hours earlier than last year. Macy's is the first major retailer to announce store hours for the Black Friday weekend, often seen as the kickoff to the holiday shopping season. Last year marked the first time the department store opened its doors at 8 p.m., after opening at midnight in the several years before. The company said the earlier opening is "in response to the significant, sustained customer interest in last year's opening on Thanksgiving." 

Macy's plans to hire about 86,000 seasonal holiday workers nationwide to bolster its stores, call centers and distribution hubs. That number represents a 3.6 percent increase from a year ago. The department store chain, which also operates Bloomingdale's, said Monday that the

They compete tooth and nail to draw customers to their Midtown flagship stores, but Macy's and J.C. Penney are teaming up to block the thievery of organized crooks. The rivals have joined more than 100 companies and the NYPD to form an alliance that will be known as the Metropolitan Organized Retail Crime Alliance. Its objective is to improve retail stores’ security efforts by sharing intelligence on crews of bandits, scams and ripoffs. Target, Home Depot and Rite Aid have also signed up for the crime-busting venture. Computer giant Apple is poised to jump onboard soon, sources said.

Macy's is launching a large number of omnichannel strategies and technologies encompassing stores, online and mobile. In addition to supporting the new Apple Pay mobile payment system, the department store retailer's new moves include piloting same-day delivery, testing new point-of-sale technology and customer service enhancements, and expanding its use of RFID to fashion categories. "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," said Terry J. Lundgren, chairman and CEO, Macy's.

Three retailers have been named "geniuses," and it may not be who you expected (well, at least one of the companies). L2, a business benchmarking service, awarded Nordstrom, Macy's and Sears "genius status," the highest honor of a five-tiered ranking system in its recent Digital IQ Index: Department Stores. Macy's and Nordstrom have been ranked highly in the past, however, I have to admit, I was surprised to see ailing retailer Sears join them at the top of the list. Over the last few months, we've heard reports of Sears closing multiple storefronts as well as management issues. Just this past week it was reported that the company probably won't last past the 2016 fiscal year. So how did Sears earn the title of "genius"?

While retailers are diving headfirst into mobile payments, consumers appear to be a bit more hesitant. Usage of digital wallets remains at less than one-third, even though a surprisingly high number of U.S. consumers — 80 percent — recognize the technology as an alternative to cash-based transactions, according to a survey of more than 2,000 smartphone, tablet and desktop users from local search and digital marketing research firm Thrive Analytics.