MBA 690 Project Management Plan: Macy's Mobile Application Analysis

This project management plan analyzes the implementation of a mobile application for Macy's, a major retail chain. The plan explores the significant forces driving the app's development, such as expanding the consumer base and reducing costs, alongside key obstacles like slow organizational growth and an outdated existing app. It details necessary changes, including upgrading the shopping experience, highlighting key products, and ensuring app availability. The plan also outlines business operations, including rebranding and financial strategies, and emphasizes key trends like incorporating features from other applications and targeting social media. The potential impact on various consumer demographics is assessed, providing a comprehensive overview of the project's objectives, challenges, and strategic considerations.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN
Project Management Plan
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Significant Forces........................................................................................................................2
Key Obstacles..............................................................................................................................3
Changes........................................................................................................................................5
Business Operations.....................................................................................................................6
Key Trends...................................................................................................................................7
Impact..........................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Developing an application for any kind of business is considered as a positive strategy for
enhancing the expansion of the business. Various organizations are found to be implementing the
strategy of developing web applications and mobile applications while there still have been the
physical stores opened for the businesses. Macy’s is such a retail industry business that is a
popular chain for the departmental stores. The enhancement of the organization has been on the
verge of development ever since it had been established in the year 1858 (Shukla & Nigam,
2018). The recent times have seen a vast change in the business and technological world; much
different from the ones that were utilized in the earlier years when the business was established.
The following report would analyze the idea of this implementation plan and management of
operations within the business as per the changes implemented due to the incorporation of the
mobile apps. This would be analyzed through the significant forces driving the strategy, the key
obstacles arising during the implementation, the changes that would be implemented as a result,
the running of the business operations, the established key trends and the impact of the
implementation of the mobile apps.
Significant Forces
Macy’s had been one of the most significant retail chain businesses in the United States.
The more it has innovated the ways to implement ideas in marketing and reaching out to
customers, it has been a successful venture every time. The more the business had expanded, the
more the business wanted to grow its customer base. For this, the organization has implemented
all the technological advancements available within the business that were used at that point of
time and have an added competitive advantage for the business (Xu, Peak & Prybutok, 2015).

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There have been various significant driving forces behind the implementation of the Macy’s
Retail Solution App. These significant driving forces are listed as below:
 Increased Consumer Base: Macy’s Retail business already had a huge business
consumer base in the United States of America and the customers were already
satisfied with the services provided by the physical stores. The organization
wanted to implement another strategy that would not only make the previous
customers be engrossed more within the services of the organization but would
also make it easier to gather the attention of the potential customers. The
experiences that the organizations have been providing the customers through the
physical presence of the stores were to be made available to the people through
the mobile application. This will enable the people to indulge more into the
business and gain access to the stores at any given point of time. Naturally, the
customers would be more intrigued.
 Reduction of cost: The web applications and mobile applications does not
involve the organization to be associated with the costs incurred like the opening
of a new store (Rashid et al., 2015). It is a much more economical and convenient
strategy for the organization to open a web portal and make sure that the utility of
the expenditure is kept as minimal as possible.
Key Obstacles
Although the idea of introducing the Macy’s Mobile App was a strategic plan having a
potential of making a huge market area for the organization, there have been reports of various
obstacles within the organization that has the potential to create problems within the system of

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the development of the application (Chou, Chuang & Shao, 2016). These problems can be listed
as below to find out the key obstacles in the process of the development of the application:
Slow growth rate of the organization in the past 3 years: It has been found according
to the annual reports in the organization that the organization could not perform its yearly
achievements in the past 3 years. There has been substantial growth within the system but it is
not as per expectations. The steady growth of the organization was very slow. The achievement
and set goals that were directed or speculated right at the beginning of the business years were
not achieved as per expectations, sometimes moderately achieving the target after a lot of
problems or sometimes fairly passing the target (Willems et al., 2017). This needed an
implementation of a strategic plan that would help in bringing about more customer attention and
involvement to make sure that the set goals for the organization are fulfilled as per expectations.
Economic Status: Mostly, retail chains and organizations are seen to invest in a lot of
money to make sure that a new physical store is set up that would bring in new customers
focused on the particular area. However, due to the particular problem in the organization found
as above, there was slow growth rate found in the entire business organization that resulted in the
moderate amount of business status. Macy’s was not in the appropriate business status at the
current point of time to invest in the opening up of a physical shop. On the other hand, this was a
boon in disguise as the opening up of a Mobile App was not in need of a huge investment
compared to that of the physical store. In addition to that, a mobile app had more market
approach than a newly set up store (Tarute, Nikou & Gatautis, 2017). It was found that, having a
moderately low business economy rate barred the organization in opening a new store, but the
alternative idea of developing a mobile application added to the competitive advantage for the
organization. However, the economic condition of the organization only had enough provision

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for the development of the app. The major problems occurring afterwards can be listed in the
section below.
Current App being outdated: After the mobile app was developed, it was found that the
features displayed within the application were outdated and the rapid exponential advances made
in the technological world had moved further away (Lowry, 2016). This would create a
disadvantage for the organization as the other retail stores implementing better features in their
mobile applications may fare better than Macy’s. Identification of this problem would make sure
that the relevant changes are made within the application so that the organization can gain a
competitive advantage.
Changes
After rigorous researches were conducted on the mobile application after its development
and launch, it was found that at various junctures, the company was in need of changes within
the application itself to make sure that it was comparable enough with the other mobile
applications of the competing retail businesses (Hoehle & Venkatesh, 2015). These changes can
be listed as below:
 Other online applications of the retail stores were studied enough to find that the
shopping experiences that people were having through the mobile application for
Macy’s Retail Store was outdated. It needed to upgrade the shopping experience.
 Recently, Macy’s had closed a number of shops to invest into the mobile
application. However, there were no other measures taken to highlight the major
products that had the potential to attract customers more (Kim et al., 2018). This
strategy needed to be changed so that the highlight or most anticipated product

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could be highlighted to intrigue the new customers as well as the loyal customers
alike.
 The app was not made live to the customers before, therefore, the strategy needed
to be changed to make it available to the customers at any given point (Bassano,
Piciocchi & Pietronudo, 2018). In addition to that, there needed to be a feedback
section to take important insights from the customers about the experience they
are having with the use of the mobile app. The development team of Macy’s can
utilize this feedback to make relevant changes from their side to accustom the
requirements of the customers for making them have a better experience.
Business Operations
The business operations that were in need for an organization having physical retail
stores are much different than the organizations having their retail business available online
(Klemm, 2016). This is due to the fact that the online stores have and opening and closing time,
but for the organizations with mobile and online applications, it was a much more efficient and
time sufficient as the utilities need to be available to the customers at any given point of time as
the online portals were available to them at all times.
 Rebranding the organization: Macy’s needed to make sure that the entire retail
organization used rebranding strategy to make the word be heard by all the
people, be it loyal customers or new potential customers. For this, the first and
foremost operations strategy that the organization needs to implement is the
rebranding of the logo and marketing the change as soon as possible to the general
mass. Innovative rebranding expansion would also make sure that the
organization is available to bridge all the gaps between its competitors (Kim et al.,

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2018). The trademark of the changed logo needed to be protected and all the
employees must be communicated well about the publication visuals and the
organizational development as a result.
 Concerning the economic state of the organization: A higher customer base is
expected when the changes are implemented in both the virtual and physical store.
However, it is only possible when the organization can afford the product or
branding changes. It has been found that the economic condition of Macy’s has
not been feasible enough to garner appropriate business needs and gain economic
success in the past three years (Tomanek, Cermak & Smutny, 2015). On the other
hand, it was a priority to develop the Macy’s App, therefore, proper measures
should be taken, like financial contingency plan, so that major business operation
can make a lean approach to invest in the least economy and make the most of the
money get invested on the development of the application.
Key Trends
The features that need to be implemented within the application must follow the latest
trends. It was found that previously the Macy’s App was outdated enough to fall out of the
interest of the customers. The financial contingency would help the organization to have an
opportunity to advance the current condition of the Macy’s App and make it an influential part of
the day to day life of the people. Shopping for all the retail items like food, cloth, furniture, and
others at any given time is a general feature of the application, which is quite normal (Ghani et
al., 2018). The Macy’s App would enable multiple accesses to the website, which would enable a
user to pick up the shopping on a different device from where they have left shopping in a
device.

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In addition to that, the app would also target the social media websites to market the
application. Like the latest mobile applications, the Macy’s App would also be made into and
Organic App, which does not charge users when they want to download the app or for any
activity within the application. The primary goal behind the organic app was to create an app that
would not be out of reach of the general mass because of its monetary needs (Malhotra, 2018).
The primary focus was to make the people spend money for the items to be sold via the
application rather than spending on downloading the app itself.
Impact
The possible impact of the Macy’s App is expected to be appealing to all the people
within the target market including the male, female, baby boomers, as well as the latest
demographic division of the millenials (Ferracuti et al., 2019). The target consumers that the
organization want to appeal to is not only restricted to people but the entire target market as a
whole. According to the researches, it was found that the appeal of the Macy’s app was not
restricted to the market and individuals but also the service providers that hosted the apps, like
the Apple Store and Google Pay.
Conclusion
Therefore, in conclusion it can be said that the Macy’s App was developed to create an
impact, but it was found that the effect of the application was outrageous and considered a very
successful addition to the retail chain of Macy’s. The consumers are at a high chance of getting
immensely benefitted by the web application with the entire shopping experience. The
consumers would not only get benefitted from the improved engagement tools but they would
also be provided with all the amenities and help needed with their shopping experiences. The
analysis has been made based on the significant forces that have shaped up the operations within

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the organization, the key obstacles while making the application get developed, the changes in
the operations within the organization, the business operations, the key trends and the impact of
the entire plan of developing the Macy’s App.

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References
Bassano, C., Piciocchi, P., & Pietronudo, M. C. (2018). Managing value co-creation in consumer
service systems within smart retail settings. Journal of Retailing and Consumer
Services, 45, 190-197.
Chou, Y. C., Chuang, H. H. C., & Shao, B. B. (2016). The impact of e-retail characteristics on
initiating mobile retail services: A modular innovation perspective. Information &
Management, 53(4), 481-492.
Ferracuti, N., Norscini, C., Frontoni, E., Gabellini, P., Paolanti, M., & Placidi, V. (2019). A
business application of RTLS technology in Intelligent Retail Environment: Defining the
shopper's preferred path and its segmentation. Journal of Retailing and Consumer
Services, 47, 184-194.
Ghani, W. S. D. W. A., Khidzir, N. Z., Guan, T. T., & Ismail, M. (2018). Critical Review on M-
Retail Cloud-Based Application for Textile Cyberpreneurship in Malaysia: Constraints,
Challenges and Opportunities. Advanced Science Letters, 24(2), 1497-1501.
Hoehle, H., & Venkatesh, V. (2015). Mobile Application Usability: Conceptualization and
Instrument Development. Mis Quarterly, 39(2).
Kim, D. J., Hebeler, J., Yoon, V., & Davis, F. (2018). Exploring Determinants of Semantic Web
Technology Adoption from IT Professionals’ Perspective: Industry Competition,
Organization Innovativeness, and Data Management Capability. Computers in Human
Behavior.

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Kim, D. J., Hebeler, J., Yoon, V., & Davis, F. (2018). Exploring Determinants of Semantic Web
Technology Adoption from IT Professionals’ Perspective: Industry Competition,
Organization Innovativeness, and Data Management Capability. Computers in Human
Behavior.
Klemm, R. (2016). A Platform Approach to Personalizing Web Applications with Social
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Rashid, R. B., Yaakob, H. B., Omar, P. U., Taib, A. B., dan Komputer, S., Dickson, P. P., ... &
Shah, P. S. H. A. (2015). The Propose Process Model on the Development and
Measuring Acceptance of E-retail Business.
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Tarute, A., Nikou, S., & Gatautis, R. (2017). Mobile application driven consumer
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