Founded in 1858, Macy’s is one of the largest and most iconic department store chains in the US. With 500+ stores and its ecommerce site macys.com, it’s able to offer affordable apparel, home goods, beauty products, and accessories to customers around the globe. It’s also the owner of Bloomingdale’s, a luxury department store chain with 50+ stores across the US.
We partnered with Macy’s to help the brand meet increased demand for online apparel, accessories, and home goods purchases. Our work designing 10+ digital products included:
Unifying the Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s app experiences
Enhancing call center software
Finding safe ways for shoppers to collect online purchases in person
Creating a new way for work colleagues to manage team wedding and baby registries
Aside from product innovation design, design systems, and operations, we also established and spread an improved design culture by hosting meetings and workshops, coordinating design projects from disparate teams, and fostering an environment of design thinking across the organization.
What We Did
Innovation workshops and training
Store-focused user research program
Multi-platform designs (mobile, desktop, digital signage)
Cross-platform associate devices (desktop, POS, mobile sled, multi-screen)
Design system aligned across consumer and associate digital products
Theming methods for Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s design systems
Visual and strategic alignment across 10+ digital products
Web application designs
Call-center software
Outcomes
50
+
customer and associate interviews
1
unified digital experience for Macy's and Bloomingdale's
1
Atomic Design system to maintain consistency and allow for innovation
I worked with Variate on multiple projects over the last six years. The Variate team consistently delivers thoughtful solutions and especially shines when designing complex projects and new systems to align the overall experience.
Mariana Cavalcanti
VP, Digital User Experience
Macy's
3 Big Takeaways
Let the customer journey lead the way
Start with the product that has the most opportunity
Design a flexible framework that allows for branding
1.
Think big. And plan.
Macy's internal design leadership had innovative and ambitious plans for how to bring together a multitude of different platforms. We helped define that future vision by assessing legacy and current systems and then creating a multi-phase, multi-year plan addressing culture, systems, and communication.
2.
Systems thinking leads to better, faster development
In order to meet aggressive timelines for upgrading a legacy system and designing a new one, we began with the former, documenting and identifying potential optimizations for multiple platforms. We then created a 2.0 framework for all new products, helping development teams save time and gracefully sunset older systems.
3.
Prototype, test, iterate, repeat
Internal software is often deprioritized when it comes to spending, and our team aimed to prove future efficacies and justify investments for several internal systems. We developed a new program of rapid prototyping, user testing, and design iteration that proved potential savings and revenue increases for new features and digital products.
See how else we support the retail & ecommerce industry.
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