Retail Media
08 May
Macy's in-house ad business grows to the wider web via The Trade Desk
The partnership is the first of its kind for the Macy's retail media network.

Photo by Taraqur Rahman on Unsplash
The partnership is the first of its kind for the Macy's retail media network.
Department store retailer Macy’s is making a big expansion in digital advertising through a new deal with an adtech heavyweight.
On Monday, Macy’s announced a new partnership with independent media buying platform The Trade Desk.
The partnership will allow advertisers to access shopper audiences from the Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s brands through the Macy’s Media Network, which is the department store chain’s in-house publisher.
It’s the first deal of its kind for Macy’s. Like many who are growing their retail media arms, the company is already putting customer data from loyalty programs to work for advertising on its own web properties. Through The Trade Desk, it is now making that data available to any advertiser, including brands whose products are sold at Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s.
Macy’s said it can provide access to 42.7 million active shoppers at Macy’s and 4.1 million at Bloomingdale’s. According to SimilarWeb, macys.com is the most-visited fashion and apparel site in the U.S. This will be combined with The Trade Desk’s reach to more than 100 million households, offering inventory across a range of surfaces including streaming TV.
“By working with The Trade Desk, we are empowering advertisers to optimize their media campaigns with a highly desirable and engaged audience set,” said Melanie Zimmermann, vice president of Macy’s Media Network in a statement. “We are excited to partner with the world’s leading advertisers to make their media matter.”
For The Trade Desk, Macy’s is the first apparel retailer to enter the company’s retail audience offering.
“Macy’s, Inc. is among the world’s renowned retailers with iconic brands like Macy's and Bloomingdale’s. And giving all advertisers the opportunity to layer on shopper and purchase insights from these retailers will help inform their media buys,” said Ben Sylvan, GM of Data Partnerships, The Trade Desk. “This partnership enables brands to buy tailored ads across the open internet, including connected TV, and drive efficiency to make the most of their advertising investments.”
It’s the latest sign that retailers are a fast-growing segment of the digital advertising ecosystem. As ecommerce grew, retailers activated advertising on their websites to add digital business lines of growth through retail media. Macy's was among them, and the department store in September launched a third-party marketplace in a bid to grow its assortment. It's a move out of the playbook of Amazon, which is the leader in retail media. More traffic and assortment means advertising grows more valuable.
But the Macy's opportunities to grow a retail media business don't end with its owned websites. Macy’s partnership with a top demand side platform shows how the first party data from purchases and loyalty programs that is used for onsite advertising can also be valuable to advertisers across the web, as well.
Still, plans to buy big-ticket items ticked up.
“Deterioration.” “Gloomy.”
Those were a couple of the words used to describe consumer confidence in May. The Conference Board reported that the index fell to a six-month low amid debt ceiling anxiety and increasing concerns about employment.
“Consumer confidence declined in May as consumers’ view of current conditions became somewhat less upbeat while their expectations remained gloomy,” said Ataman Ozyildirim, senior director of economics at the Conference Board, in a statement. “...While consumer confidence has fallen across all age and income categories over the past three months, May’s decline reflects a particularly notable worsening in the outlook among consumers over 55 years of age.”
The dip among those over 55 came as Congress negotiated a deal over increasing the debt ceiling that included talk of cuts to programs such as social security and Medicare. While officials reached an agreement over Memorial Day weekend, the Conference Board’s survey was fielded prior to that date.
The job picture appears to be more anecdotally cloudy, as the number of consumers reporting jobs as “plentiful” fell to four percentage points to 43.5%. The job market has been consistently robust for nearly three years, as unemployment remains near historic lows. In April, the economy added 253,000 jobs, which remained a positive sign despite being below the gains of prior months. The confidence reading comes ahead of fresh data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.
Despite the declines, there were signs that consumers are not completely pulling back on big-ticket items. Plans to buy big-ticket items such as cars and appliances ticked up on a monthly basis. It’s worth watching whether this extends to providing resilience in other discretionary categories, which have seen a pullback in early 2023.
Nevertheless, the index offered another sign that the consumer mood is getting more pessimistic. It was the fourth time in five months that confidence fell. On Friday, the University of Michigan offered another with a consumer sentiment report that showed a 7% dip.
Brands and retailers must work to reach consumers that are increasingly in less of a buying mood than the month before.