Macy’s Still Makes Top 10 in Mobile Payments / eCommerce Shopping…Barely.

March 1, 2024         By: Steven Anderson

Remember when Macy’s used to be mentioned in pretty much the same breath as Nordstrom in terms of upscale retail? The company that brought us the Thanksgiving parade is one of retail’s great iconic brands…and it’s also losing a lot of ground with ecommerce and mobile payments shopping. In fact, new word from eMarketer—which it sent our way recently—puts it down around the bottom of the top 10 firms in the field, and it even got some word out of Macy’s in response to this.

The eMarketer study found that the clear winner in online shopping is Amazon, with 47 percent of the retail ecommerce sales share. The remaining nine firms on the list aren’t sufficient to match that, as it turns out, with second place eBay only able to generated 6.1 percent. Retail titan Walmart, meanwhile, came in third at 4.6, and Apple fourth at 3.8. After a series of one-point-somethings you’ll find Macy’s at 1.2 percent.

If that just gave you the cold chills, you’re not alone. Check out what eMarketer’s principal Analysi, Andrew Lipsman, had to say on the topic: “Macy’s managed to deliver solid Q4 results despite its already acknowledged sales shortfall in December. The holiday period may be a barometer of what’s to come for Macy’s, which attracted customers during the Thanksgiving promotional period but had trouble keeping them engaged as mall traffic softened in early and mid-December.”

Essentially, Macy’s seems to be in the unenviable position of having to not only maintain its brick-and-mortar presence—which is falling off thanks to the growth of online retail and the general loss of retail shopping in general—but also having to ramp up its online growth in a field that’s packed full of competitors. That’s not a good position to be in, but then, it may well find value in ship-to-store options as well as taking advantage of the otherwise negative showrooming trend.

It’s a line that all stores have to walk to one degree or another, and it’s one that shows us all the impact mobile payments are having in the market. Online shopping is a big opportunity herein, and stores from Macy’s to Amazon and beyond will have to absorb this new demand or risk losing customers.