Macy's Store To Be One Of the First Retailers To Support Apple Pay

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Macy’s recent announcement that Apple Pay and iBeacon technology are a primary part of its marketing stratagy is just another example of how Apple is setting itself up to dominate the mobile e-commerce payment landscape.

The Macy’s announcement outlined its latest advancements in omnichannel strategy and technology as the company continues to add new dimensions for attracting shoppers and serving the needs of individual customers.

Here is what Macy’s said its about its store, online, and mobile efforts including how it is integrating Apple Pay and iBeacon into its marketing program:

Apple Pay: As announced on Sept. 9, 2014, Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores will be among the first retailers to support the new Apple Pay mobile payment system which will be available beginning this fall on new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus mobile devices, as well as on the newly unveiled Apple Watch. The convenience of mobile payment at the point-of-sale is becoming increasingly interesting to customers, and Apple Pay offers an opportunity to further simplify the point-of-sale process in Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores in an easy, secure and private manner. More details will be available in October, when the new service is scheduled to launch.

Shopkick shopBeacons (iBeacon): After a test run last year during the holiday season at Macy’s flagships in New York and San Francisco, Macy’s and shopkick, one of the most widely used real-world shopping apps, will expand the use of shopkick’s shopBeacon technology to all Macy’s stores nationwide. In what will be the largest implementation of iBeacon technology at retail stores to date with more than 4,000 devices, shopBeacons, an enhanced mobile location-based technology built upon Apple’s iBeacon Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol, will be placed within various departments at Macy’s locations, allowing for users of the shopkick app to get more personalized department-level deals, discounts, recommendations and rewards. Installation of shopBeacons is expected to be complete by early fall 2014, with activation beginning shortly thereafter. Once live, as shoppers enter any Macy’s nationwide, shopBeacon will remind those shopkick app users who’ve opted in to receive notifications to open their app. During the initial phase of the program, customers will receive the currently available Macy’s promotions, deals or discounts. In early spring 2015, these Macy’s offers can be even more precisely tailored by departments in the store. This enhancement in Macy’s mobile technology arsenal will allow for increased consumer engagement and promotional and marketing relevancy that will benefit customers nationwide.

Enhanced Shopping Apps: Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s both have launched all-new mobile shopping apps for iOS and Android. Enhanced navigation allows customers to easily and quickly move between features, reach desired product with fewer clicks, check-out more quickly, as well as the enhanced ability to manage gift registries. New improvements to the shopping experience on the mobile apps will be continually added throughout the fall season and beyond.

Macy’s Image Search App: The company has begun deploying new technology concepts created in its San Francisco-based Idea Lab at macys.com and then built quickly in its lean development organization. Among them is Macy’s Image Search, an all-new app that allows customers to search the merchandise assortment on macys.com by taking and submitting a photograph of any outfit, accessory or merchandise item they see in daily life. The visual search will take the customer to similar items on macys.com, where they can be purchased. Macy’s Image Search is currently available for iPhone from the Apple App Store, and the functionality will be incorporated into the primary Macy’s app.

Macy’s Wallet/Bloomingdale’s Wallet: Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s have introduced new mobile wallets. The Macy’s Wallet and Bloomingdale’s Wallet enables shoppers to easily store and access offers and coupons virtually. The wallet creates a seamless, omnichannel checkout experience for customers enrolled in loyalty rewards programs (Macy’s Star Rewards and Bloomingdale’s Loyallist), whether in-store, on the go via their mobile devices or at home through desktop interaction. Storing this information in a single destination eliminates the need for physical versions of special discount offers or other shopping incentives. The wallets are already available to customers with profiles on macys.com and/or bloomingdales.com, where shoppers can currently access the functionality via desktop, mobile devices and in-store at point of sale registers nationwide. In November, the company’s mobile apps will add the wallet function to complete the omnichannel experience.

RFID Yielding Results and Expanding: Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s are seeing tangible results from their adoption of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology that began rolling out in 2011. Macy’s, Inc. was among the first retailers to implement RFID on a broad national scale to improve the accuracy of item-level inventory counting, with an emphasis on basic size-intensive replenishment categories so the company can ensure that all appropriate styles and sizes are properly in place on the selling floor and available for sale. In recent omnichannel pilots in fashion categories – social dresses, men’s sportcoats and men’s slacks – Macy’s documented RFID’s ability to significantly improve sales, gross margins and markdowns by better leveraging inventory counts that are real-time and accurate. Additional rollout of RFID tagging in fashion categories is planned for 2015.

Macy’s Digital Editions: With the launch of Macy’s Fall Fashion direct mail catalog, macys.com will take the pages of the physical book and transform them into a virtual diary of special content. Macy’s Digital Edition will leverage the functionality of the tablet experience to introduce customers to an enhanced catalog featuring exclusive editorial content, fashion advice, closer looks at the product and curated product suggestions. Available at macys.com/digitaledition, customers will be able to interact with enhanced content from three of Macy’s Fall Fashion catalogs including the women’s ready-to-wear/accessories fashion book, the men’s fashion book and Macy’s Beauty Scene catalog. The virtual guides will offer consumers the interactive opportunity to learn about the season’s top trends, get 360 degree views of products, see fashion tip videos, and create new outfits using the Style Mixer feature that allows the user to mix and match pieces based on the initial look. Macy’s Digital Edition will be a seamless, fun-to-use, interactive experience on tablet, desktop and mobile, that also allows customers to shop the styles directly from the virtual catalog.