This fall, via its marketplace, macys.com will make available 400 brands not previously sold at Macy’s, across 20 categories. Of the 20, eight categories are new to Macy’s: electronics, video games, floral gifts, gift tissue/wrapping paper, vitamins, sports nutrition, computers and peripherals, and wellness. The marketplace is geared to grow Macy’s volume and profitability and meet the demand for products that the retailer’s shoppers requested but couldn’t find on its website or in Macy’s stores in the past. The online offering will grow over time. Powered by Mirakl, and customized by Macy’s digital, merchant and technology teams, the platform provides third-party sellers with a superior experience to integrate their products into Macy’s e-commerce architecture. Last year, of Macy’s $24.46bn in total sales, digital represented 35%, a 9% decline from 2020, but a 10% improvement over 2019.

The marketplace is being ‘seamlessly’ integrated into the product assortment of the e-commerce site, meaning that customers shopping online and through Macy’s mobile app should feel minimal differences. On the product pages, marketplace items sold by a third party and shipped by it are indicated. With the marketplace format, Macy’s does not own that merchandise or manage the shipping to customers, but gets commissions on the sales. This is different than owned merchandise that is bought by Macy’s merchants, held in its warehouses and delivered to customers by the retailer. It’s also different from drop shipping where Macy’s also owns the goods that are sold on macys.com, but shipped by the supplier. Macy’s has more than 44mn customers — those who have shopped the retailer at least once in the trailing 12 months. Bloomingdale’s will also be launching the marketplace format on its website.