Macy's to add 725 employees in its online shopping business

Will work in New York, San Francisco, Atlanta

Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, January 4, 2011

NEW YORK — Macy's Inc. says it will add 725 jobs over the next two years as part of an aggressive e-commerce growth plan aimed at enhancing customers' online shopping experience.

The retailer said the additional positions announced this week will support anticipated growth at macys.com and sister online retailer bloomingdales.com.

Macys.com will add 260 positions in its merchandising and marketing organizations in New York City over the next two years and has signed a lease for additional office space at 1440 Broadway to handle the growth. This is in addition to the 420 macys.com associates now employed at the same location.

Over the same period it also plans to add about 200 positions at its site development and operations location in downtown San Francisco, which currently employs more than 300.

Bloomingdales.com will add 115 positions in its merchandising, marketing and operations organizations in New York and is negotiating a lease for additional office space in midtown Manhattan. Bloomingdales.com now employs 200 in New York.

Over the next two years, Macy's Systems and Technology plans to add 150 positions at its Johns Creek campus in Atlanta. These positions, which are in addition to the 1,050 already working there, will provide additional technical support for macys.com and bloomingdales.com.

Furniture/Today ranks Macy's as the eighth largest U.S. retailer of furniture, bedding and decorative accessories, based on its sales of more than $1 billion the categories in fiscal 2009.

During the first 10 months of fiscal 2010 online sales at macys.com were up 29% compared with the same period in 2009. The online division also had 20% growth in fiscal 2009 and 29% growth in fiscal 2008, making it one of the fastest growing segments of the company.

"Macy's Inc. is building one of the largest, most efficient and resourceful e-commerce organizations in American retailing as part of our comprehensive omnichannel strategy," Terry Lundgren, the company's chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement. "This is a business that thrives on unrelenting creativity and innovation. Having the right talent in the right place is vital as we seek to sustain and accelerate our sales growth online, as well as in the stores. These expansions to macys.com and bloomingdales.com represent investments in merchandising, marketing, and site development, which complement ongoing improvements in systems infrastructure, fulfillment capacity and customer service."