Macy’s Inc. Picks a Chief Customer and Digital Officer
Macy’s Inc., moving quickly to fill a big hole in the organization, has named Massimo “Max” Magni as chief customer and digital officer.
In this wide-ranging position, Magni will direct the strategic long-term vision and growth of Macy’s Inc.’s digital businesses at the Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s divisions. He will also guide what the company called “customer-centric strategies involving leveraging data and analytics to enhance the customer experience across various touch points,” which include the e-commerce websites, mobile apps, loyalty and gift registry programs as well as marketplace formats.
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Marketplace is a new strategy for the Macy’s corporation. The Macy’s brand launched its marketplace in September, and Bloomingdale’s is expected to introduce it this year. By launching digital marketplace platforms, the offering of categories and brands listed on macys.com and bloomingdales.com are significantly expanded, and sellers are able to engage with a wider audience of shoppers. When Macy’s introduced its marketplace, the retailer started offering such categories as electronics, video games, floral gifts, gift tissue/wrapping paper, vitamins, sports nutrition, computers and peripherals, and wellness, which it didn’t offer before.
The marketplace is geared to grow Macy’s volume and profitability and meet the demand for products that shoppers requested but couldn’t find on macys.com or in Macy’s stores in the past. In 2022, of Macy’s Inc.’s $24.46 billion in total volume, digital sales represented 33 percent. As of the first quarter of 2023, digital penetration of total sales was 32 percent.
With a marketplace format, the retailer does not own that merchandise or manage the shipping to customers, but gets commissions on the sales of products listed. This is different than owned merchandise that is bought by retail merchants, held in its warehouses and delivered to customers by the retailer. It’s also different from drop shipping where the retailer also owns the goods that are sold online, but shipped by the supplier.
While Macy’s has a well-developed e-commerce site, it is believed that Bloomingdale’s still has much opportunity to grow its business online. Increasing online sales are among the priorities set forth in Macy’s overarching Polaris strategy established in 2020.
Magni, a former partner at McKinsey, begins to lead Macy Inc.’s customer and digital organization on Monday. He will be reporting to Tony Spring, president and chief executive officer-elect of Macy’s Inc. Magni succeeds Matt Baer, who in June became CEO of Stitch Fix, the online personal styling service.
“Max brings to the team an innovative, customer-led mindset that will help advance our digital business and strengthen our customer relationships,” Spring said in a statement Tuesday. “His passion for and experience with portfolio optimization, e-commerce and digital analytics transformation makes him a great fit for the organization.”
Magni, a 20-plus-year veteran of McKinsey & Co. Inc., was most recently the firm’s senior partner coleading the NeXT Commerce unit and serving as global leader of the firm’s Consumer Growth Practices, helping brands in a variety of sectors develop customer-centric and data-driven initiatives to drive growth. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School.
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