Amid heightened competition, Macy’s West has launched a redesigned Impulse contemporary department in its San Francisco flagship.
Elements of the new concept, which features black-and-white decor accented by apple green, an expanded collection of contemporary brands and new shopping bags with a downsized logo, will be integrated into the 60 Impulse departments in the 188 stores of Macy’s West.
“All stores will get a piece of the…launch, primarily in the visual arena,” said Denise Lawson Curry, divisional merchandising manager for the company. “The run-of-press, coffee sleeve, bus shelter and billboard campaigns will also reach our entire California demographic. The new shopping bags are part of a test that we hope to roll out further in spring 2007.”
The San Francisco department doubled to 34,000 square feet from 17,000 square feet. Although expansion and full-scale renovation aren’t in the works for all Impulse departments, several may be enlarged, Lawson Curry said, adding, “South Coast Plaza [in Orange County, Calif.] is definitely one of them.”
Tifani Wilt, women’s fashion director for ready-to-wear at Macy’s West, said competition in the contemporary arena, particularly in San Francisco, pushed the decision to bolster Impulse, both from a merchandising and a visual standpoint.
And some of the heat is coming from Bloomingdale’s — like Macy’s, a division of Federated Department Stores — which opened a 330,000-square-foot unit in the Westfield San Francisco Centre shopping mall in September.
Bloomingdale’s has ratcheted up its Y.E.S. contemporary division company-wide in the last five years, expanding floor space and honing the product mix. “It’s our signature business,” said Frank Doroff, Bloomingdale’s senior executive president and general merchandise manager of rtw.
Wilt acknowledged that Bloomingdale’s arrival in San Francisco poses a challenge to Macy’s contemporary business. The Y.E.S. division there occupies its own floor, 34,927 square feet, and incorporates California designers and labels, including Robert Rodriguez, C&C California and Splendid. “California is an extremely strong market for designers,” Doroff said. “[They] represent a very significant portion of our business.”
“We realized [contemporary] had grown by leaps and bounds over the years,” Wilt said. “The way the business is now, you have to stay competitive….We thought, ‘What do we need to do to continue to provide the most exciting shopping experience for our customers?'”
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Doroff said Bloomingdale’s overall contemporary business “has grown an average rate of at least 20 percent a year.”
The apparel offerings of Impulse in Macy’s San Francisco have expanded along with the department. The store now has the largest Marc by Marc Jacobs and Theory shops in the city.
“It’s a lot more of what you love,” said Wilt, citing Trina Turk, Tracy Reese, Rachel Palley, Marc by Marc Jacobs and BCBG as some of the top-selling brands. “We’re constantly looking for new, hot vendors. Now we have the ability to showcase them.”
Prices range from around $100 for knit tops by Rachel Palley to just over $450 for winter coats from Marc by Marc Jacobs.
Visually, Wilt likens the department to “more of a boutique within the store. When you walk into it, you feel a different vibe. The decor is different. It has kind of a retro vibe to it but very clean and updated.”
Doroff said Macy’s revamp is one of many reasons that pressure in the category is incessant. “Everyone wants a slice of this pie,” he said. “We want a bigger slice.”
Lawson Curry of Macy’s West said of the new Impulse concept: “We absolutely feel [the redesign] will fuel current business, as well as attract a new potential Impulse customer.”
Wilt added, “We did some research and tried to determine what our customer was responding to. She likes to feel that she’s shopping in more of a boutique environment….She wants to know that what she’s buying is special and unique.”