This week a Reuters article was published regarding the benefit to Macys.com of Federated Department Stores’ converting former May Company stores into Macy’s. I wrote an article about this same topic in Chain Store Age last spring, in which I examined how a national brand will allow Macys.com to gain a larger, national audience and increase its traffic from search.
According the Reuters article, “the retailer studied its shoppers and found that 72% of Macys.com transactions come from a zip code within 20 minutes of a Macy’s store.” Indeed, Hitwise demographic data showed that the majority of visitors to Macys.com reside in the states in which Macy’s offline stores exist. Similarly, the visitor profiles of the MayCo’s online stores reflected their offline regional footprint.
Federated chairman Terry Lundgren said “when Macy’s enters a new market, it experiences a jump in traffic to its Macys.com site.” According to Hitwise data, the MayCo store conversions may be helping the Macy’s online brand -in December 2005 the market share of visits to Macys.com was up 27% over December 2004, outpacing growth for Macys.com’s competitors. Visits to JCPenney.com increased by 18% in December 2005 versus December 2004, and visits to Nordstrom.com were down 1% in the same period.
The conversion of the MayCo stores presents significant opportunities for Macys.com to build its brand online by converting MayCo online shoppers to Macys.com early in the process. Run a Google search for any of the major MayCo stores – Filene’s, Foley’s, Hecht’s, and you’ll see no mention of Macy’s or the merger. But if you search on “strawbridges,” a paid listing for Macys.com appears. It also shows up in Hitwise Search Term Analysis as the fifth most popular site receiving visits on that term, demonstrating that Macys.com can begin converting MayCo customers online now, before the offline stores are converted.