Despite closing stores around the country—including one at Cortana Mall in 2016, Macy’s Inc. CEO Jeff Gennette says he’s still optimistic about the future of the nation’s largest department-store chain, even if it doesn’t look much like the store founder R.H. Macy imagined.
As Bloomberg reports, Gennette, 55, wants to build Macy’s into a fashion destination where shoppers looking for exclusive products can buy online or on their phones as easily as in a store.
In an interview from his office on the 13th floor above the department store’s iconic Herald Square flagship location in New York City, Gennette mapped out how Macy’s will capture one hypothetical customer’s heart.
“We need to be sure that when she walks into a Macy’s—be it on the web or on a mobile device or when she walks into our stores—she encounters a brand she loves, that gets her, that she wants to tell her friends about,” Gennette says.
He has his work cut out for him. The chain is reeling from tumbling sales and sluggish shopping-mall traffic. Disappointing holiday sales resulted in the closure of Macy’s Cortana Mall location last year, and Macy’s posted a 4.6% decline in comparable sales last quarter—deeper than the 3.5% drop predicted by analysts.
And with more store closings on the horizon, CFO Karen Hoguet warned on Tuesday that second-quarter gross margins have contracted a percentage point from a year earlier.
Macy’s has one store left in Baton Rouge.
Despite ongoing challenges nationwide, the company is maintaining its earnings forecast, vowing to reach its goals by slashing costs and revamping its marketing strategy.
