Macy’s opens an online marketplace for third-party vendors.
Macy’s opens an online marketplace for third-party vendors.
America’s department store was the previous moniker for Macy’s. It’s now more well known as Amazon roadkill.
Currently, Macy’s is retaliating. The illustrious brand said on Wednesday that it will open an online store where independent vendors may offer their wares. It may be better to be late than never.
The long road of Macy’s opens an online marketplace
The retailer’s Fall fashion catalogue from the previous year was more recent than their online buying strategy. Before Wednesday, Macy’s online presence was a direct reflection of its physical shops and stockrooms, limiting online consumers to what was currently available at their neighbourhood shopping centre.
With the help of its new platform, independent businesses may now offer their items on the Macy’s website and sell and ship them independently. Although Macy’s will continue to select which items are finally featured, its catalogue is anticipated to significantly grow by adding 400 new brands. It won’t have to worry about logistics for storage and delivery, but it will keep a portion of purchases from third parties.
Although other significant big-box and brick-and-mortar retailers underwent a similar change a long time ago, Macy’s is hoping the makeover would give the ailing 164-year-old department store new life:
Bed Bath & Beyond announced its own version of the third-party marketplace in 2021, while Target launched Target+ in 2019. In order to compete with Amazon’s Fulfilled by Amazon service, Walmart introduced a third-party fulfilment service in 2020. Walmart first entered the third-party market back in 2009.
In November of last year, Macy’s initially revealed its plans to join the market and said it might generate $10 billion in sales by 2023 (the firm generated nearly $24 billion in total sales in 2023).
An additional Walmart reported in February that the gross merchandise volume of its fulfilment services increased by 500% in 2021, its second year of operation. Then, in August, the retail behemoth loosened most of its standards for third-party seller approval, making it possible for anyone to sell on its platform just like Amazon.
Nevertheless, according to estimates from the research company eMarketer, Walmart only maintains approximately 7% of the domestic e-commerce market share, as opposed to almost 40% owned by Amazon. We doubt Jeff Bezos’ space boots are trembling.
