What You’ll Learn at The Workshop at Macy’s

Here are key student takeaways and topics we'll cover in The Workshop at Macy’s.

At the conclusion of the workshop, you'll know how to:

• Understand Macy’s strategy
• Present a product line to Macy’s executives to determine viability of doing business with Macy’s
• Understand what's necessary to build a successful relationship with the merchant team
• Be able to build and present a strategic plan
• Understand the components of a seasonal brand strategy
• Understand EDI/Certification

Keys to A Successful Partnership with Macy’s – Live Case Study

In this session, you'll experience a mock pitch and hear from a successful existing retail partner the lessons learned in turning a big idea into a viable business. This partner will also discuss the importance of financial backing, understanding your core competencies and your niche and how to articulate them, and what's needed to build an infrastructure and appropriate equity in people, marketing, and other key program elements.

Identifying the Customer

For this session, you will complete a store visit exercise, built to help you identify your target customer and become familiar with your competition. You will compare and contrast your findings to that of our subject matter expert, who will present industry-leading research on the Macy’s customer. By the end of the session, you'll have a better understanding of the importance of identifying your customer in the context of your retail partner.

Achieving Excellence Through Best Practices –
Merchant Panel Discussion

In this session, we'll explore the merchant-to-merchant relationship through a panel of experts, including buyers, planners, pricing, and inventory experts. You'll develop a firm grasp on the key elements of a successful relationship with the buyer, how to address fluctuations in the business, and how to anticipate opportunities and manage to expectations as a vendor. By the end of the session, you'll be able to understand the merchant organization structure, how the organization relates to roles and responsibilities within Macy’s, fully grasp the merchant decision-making process when sourcing new vendors, and have a clear understanding of the metrics used to evaluate business performance.

Building your Brand Identity

This session will focus on marketing for the future. In the face of ever-changing technology and consumer expectations, you'll gain an understanding of how to stay true to your brand identity, when launching a brand for today's consumer. At the conclusion of the session, you will have an understanding of how to build a brand message and ensure your vision is fully executed.

Maximizing your Assortment Plan and Production Life Cycle

This session centers on an explanation of the product life cycle, manufacturing efficiency, and streamlining the production process. Also, this session will touch upon assortment planning; identifying and addressing emerging trends and strategic growth opportunities. You'll come away from this session with strategies on how to improve your assortment plan and production capabilities.

Importance of the Ask

This session serves as a capstone to the program, highlighting the importance of the ask. In this session, presentation tools and tips will be provided to aid in the presentation of your retail business strategy.

Successfully Accessing Capital

In this session, we'll explore the various ways to obtain financing. You'll discover the power of the pitch; learning the best way to present your case to financial lenders and increase your chances to get debt and/or equity financing. In addition, a distinguished panel of lenders will discuss what they offer and what they look for from a potential client.

Entrepreneurial Finance

These sessions focus on developing an understanding of entrepreneurial finance, including the basics of financial planning for business, financial ratios, and capital growth strategy. At the end of these sessions, you'll have an understanding of financial planning as well as working knowledge of financial ratios; you'll also understand the initial phases of capital growth, debt equity, and value creation. The objective is for you to walk away with the tools needed to achieve long term financial sustainability, increasing the chances you'll be able to grow your business into a successful vendor relationship with a major retailer like Macy’s.