Dive Brief:
- As part of a strategy to refresh its private labels, Macy’s has launched Arch Studio, a “moderately priced” owned brand focused around a range of bath and bedding products, kitchenware and dinnerware.
- Arch Studio items are priced from $14 bowls and platters to $220 for a three-piece seersucker comforter set, and also include products such as stainless steel cookware, towels and drinkware.
- Arch Studio is now available on the Macy’s mobile app, the website and all 425 Macy’s stores nationwide.
Dive Insight:
Macy’s Inc. is in the midst of an ongoing merchandising transformation that it hopes will help revitalize the department store. Revamping private labels and adding new ones to the mix is a way to offer consumers exclusive, value-oriented products.
"As we continue on our private brands reimagination journey, this year we are focused on home and want to inspire our customers with elevated products,” Emily-Erusha Hilleque, senior vice president of private brands, said in a statement. The company did three years of research with “thousands” of shoppers to develop the private label, the executive said, which aims to offer “both style and value.”
Macy’s private label revamps so far have focused on the apparel space, with the first in a series launching in July 2023. Since then, the department store has unveiled a loungewear brand, a menswear private label and a revamp of its kids label Epic Threads.
The department store is tackling the home space as the sector has recently shown signs of life after a five-year roller coaster ride caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which changed the way customers shopped. Home goods retailers enjoyed a dramatic increase in sales during the early part of the pandemic as people stayed home and redesigned their living spaces. But sales later declined as cooped-up consumers began venturing out again, encouraged by vaccines that promised a safer indoors environment.
As the home sector stabilizes, other retailers are beefing up their private label offerings as well. Kohl’s this week launched two value-priced private label home goods collections, building off a plan to increase its product assortment in the category by 40%.
For Macy’s, the private label revamp comes amid declining sales and a robust store closure plan. The department store is coming off a holiday season where stores slated to close weighed down the company’s overall sales picture. Net sales were down 4.3% in the quarter, which had one fewer week than a year ago. That was all attributable to declines at Macy’s, as both the Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury divisions saw sales increase.
