Macy’s $640 million, 2.5 million sq-ft fulfilment center with the largest storage capacity, intelligent automation and advanced warehouse management system displaced the traditional retail warehouse.
Macy’s
Faster Deliveries and Restocking In-Store
Macy’s new fulfilment center with the largest storage capacity, intelligent automation and advanced warehouse management system is displacing the traditional retail warehouse. By supporting all product categories, more orders can be shipped from a single location, helping customers receive everything they need, faster. Per The Wall Street Journal, this includes the opening of its biggest, and ‘most-automated’ warehouse. It combines robotics, AI-driven optimisation, and an integrated warehouse management system to handle all product categories — under one roof. The outcome: higher throughput, quicker fulfilment cycles, and fewer manual interventions.
Mobile units, automated storage and retrieval systems move merchandise between storage zones and pick-up stations. Human operators no longer walk to the product — the product is delivered to them. ‘The opening of our China Grove facility is a significant step in modernising our supply chain and elevating the customer experience across every channel — with faster deliveries, well-stocked stores and seamless service’, said Tom Edwards, COO and CFO of Macy’s, Inc. ‘With this investment, we’re building a faster, more efficient and agile network designed to meet our customers’ needs today and in the future.’
Scalable Operation Empowers Growth
China Grove is the company’s third site to introduce high performance automation and the first to operate with an advanced warehouse management system. At the first two sites, automation more than doubled productivity, highlighting the power of these solutions to transform operations. With the addition of the new management system in China Grove, the company expects to achieve even greater gains in efficiency and accuracy of fulfilment and store replenishment, while establishing a model to scale this technology across the network.
‘Over the past two years, we’ve tested and learned from automation at other sites, refining how it can make our operations more efficient and our colleagues work safer and smarter’, said Sean Barbour, senior VP of supply chain operations. ‘Now, we’re building on those lessons with our most advanced deployment yet including the debut of a new warehouse management system that will provide greater accuracy, flexibility, and speed.’
The company’s second quarter financial reports showed a sign of a turnaround, with comparable-store sales up 0.8%, beating expectations. ‘Our teams achieved better than expected top- and bottom-line results during the second quarter, driven by our strongest comparable sales growth in 12 quarters’, said Tony Spring, Chairman and CEO of Macy’s, Inc. ‘Our performance highlights the advantages of being a multi-brand, multi-category, omni-channel retailer. The substantive, enterprise-wide improvements across our business, with a strong focus on customer experience, give us further confidence that our Bold New Chapter initiatives can drive sustainable, long-term profitable growth.’
People and Community
Macy’s Inc. continues their decades-long legacy of giving back to the communities where colleagues live and work. In celebration of the new facility, the company has committed $250,000 to support local organisations that strengthen the community. Macy’s, Inc. is leading the development of an automation training lab at the Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, giving students hands-on access to the same technology used in the new facility. The lab will help prepare the next generation of talent and reflects Macy’s continued investment in people and skills that power progress. As the company continues to integrate new technology and automate repetitive or physically demanding tasks, it’s also investing in training and up-skilling. These efforts ensure colleagues are empowered to build meaningful careers in a modern, tech-enabled environment.
The Blueprint: Hybrid Model
The success of Macy’s automated fulfilment center demonstrates how a traditional retailer can modernise without compromising operational discipline. Macy’s has demonstrated that automation does not replace the workforce—rather, robots manage repetitive, high-volume tasks while the company employees focus on handling exceptions, quality assurance, and customer-centric decision-making. This hybrid model provides a practical blueprint for other retailers aiming to scale efficiently. As automation continues to re-engineer retail logistics, we can expect faster order processing, improved accuracy, smarter inventory management, and more resilient supply chains. The future of retail will be powered by a balanced partnership between human judgement and intelligent automation.
About Macy’s, Inc.
Macy’s, Inc. is a leading omni-channel American retailer, founded by Rowland Hussey Macy Sr. on March 6, 1929 and is headquartered in New York, NY. Operating popular brands including Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury, the company’s product mix spans apparel, home furnishings, cosmetics, footwear, fragrance and fashion accessories, delivered through physical stores, websites, and mobile applications.
Headquartered in New York City, the company’s roots trace back to a series of regional department store chains consolidated under the holding company formerly known as Federated Department Stores before its re-branding to Macy’s, Inc. in 2007. In recent years, Macy’s, Inc. has emphasised its transformation from a bricks-and-mortar operator into a modern retail enterprise with strong digital capabilities. The company is investing in e-commerce, optimising its store footprint and embracing automation in fulfilment and logistics to improve speed, scalability and customer experience.
Jasmeen Dugal is Associate Editor at FashionABC, contributing her insights on fashion, technology, and sustainability. She brings with herself more than two decades of editorial experience, working for national newspapers and luxury magazines in India.
Jasmeen Dugal has worked with exchange4media as a senior writer contributing articles on the country’s advertising and marketing movements, and then with Condenast India as Net Editor where she helmed Vogue India’s official website in terms of design, layout and daily content. Besides this, she is also an entrepreneur running her own luxury portal, Explosivefashion, which highlights the latest in luxury fashion and hospitality.
