Macy's adopts new mobile technology

16 Sep '10

3 min read

Macy's, Inc. has taken several significant steps to advance its capabilities in mobile technology, which continues to gain acceptance with consumers in the U.S. Among components of the company's comprehensive mobile strategy:

Macy's and Bloomingdale's have optimized the ability for consumers to use any smart phone to navigate the company's e-commerce sites. When customers use an Internet-capable mobile device to visit macys.com and bloomingdales.com, they now see larger and clearer images and click-through buttons so using the sites are faster and easier. Technology detects the type of mobile device a shopper is using and customizes the presentation of macys.com and bloomingdales.com to that customer.

The company expects to continue to improve functionality of mobile-enabled web in the near future. In many cases, customers connect to macys.com and bloomingdales.com on their mobile devices when they receive e-mail communications from the company with promotional offers or new product information.

Macy's has launched an upgraded iShop application for iPhone. The new app loads faster, can be navigated more easily and integrates in real-time with macys.com to provide an improved mobile shopping experience. Through iShop, customers can browse the macys.com merchandise assortment, place and track orders, read product reviews, explore gift guides, find store locations, and access details on special events and campaigns.

Macy's has begun piloting the use of shopkick - a new location-based shopping app - at about 150 stores in the New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago markets. By downloading shopkick free from the iPhone App Store, Macy's customers can earn "kickbucks" reward points by simply walking into a Macy's store with their mobile device. They also will receive offers on products or related to specific departments within Macy's. Kickbucks can be redeemed, at the touch of a button on the iPhone, for Facebook Credits to play games online, song downloads, in-store gift rewards at Macy's and other shopkick partner stores, magazine subscriptions, iPods and charitable donations.

Through Sept. 30, customers can check in at any Bloomingdale's store on Foursquare and be automatically entered for a chance to win a trip for two to New York City. Winners fly first class, courtesy of Continental Airlines, for a three-night stay at The Leading Hotels of the World, The Mark. The promotion is part of Bloomingdale's fall fashion campaign that highlights "what to wear, where to go and who to know."

"Americans love mobile devices and are making them an integral part of their lifestyle. Walk down any street, and you can see how the convenience of mobile is connecting people to the world around them as they live, work and play," said Peter Sachse, Macy's chief marketing officer and chairman of macys.com. "For our company, mobile is a way to make shopping more convenient and it helps build strong relationships with customers of our stores and online sites. We are seeing an increasing proportion of our online site traffic coming from mobile devices and we expect that proportion will grow rapidly as we develop and adopt new technology to embrace our mobile customer."

Macy's, Inc., with corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York, is one of the nation's premier retailers, with fiscal 2009 sales of $23.5 billion. The company operates about 850 department stores in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico under the names of Macy's and Bloomingdale's.

Macy's Inc

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