What: Retail veteran Walter Loeb on the latest Macy’s CFO announcements at the JP Morgan Retail Roundup.

Why it is important: All IADS also report the same trend, with customers keeping on spending but directing the money towards other categories or even industries.

Walter Loeb reports Macy’s CFO’s vision for 2022, as he sees this year as a remarkably uncertain one. While there is no doubt that customers plan to spend, the challenge lies in knowing where they will spend (in shopping, experiences, leisure…?) leading to a difficult planning. In order to prepare for this unpredictability, Macy’s plans to:

• Test new product categories thanks to their marketplace,
• Fine-tune CRM to re-engage customers,
• Increase the number of smaller locations (Bloomies, Market by Macy’s, Backstage),
• Use geopricing to give stores more leverage,
• Monetize both real estate and the retail media network,
• Base buying decisions on predictive demand,

These actions are expected to generate a 38% gross margin in 2022 (in spite of a single digit growth) vs. 35% in previous years.

Walter Loeb expresses reserves in his post-scriptum, especially in terms of execution of the plan.

Macy’s prepares for an unpredictable future