Macy's announced plans to close 35 to 40 underperforming stores, which generate combined sales of roughly $300 million. This is an acceleration from the 14 store closures planned for 2015 as announced in January. The closures, planned for early next year, represent approximately 1% of total sales. The announcement is the latest move in the company’s effort to optimize its omnichannel approach to its customer base, and signals its ongoing commitment to keep M.O.M. 3.0 (My Macy’s localization, Omnichannel integration and Magic Selling customer engagement) at the center of its long-term growth strategy. The M.O.M. initiative began about six years ago. In addition to offering a place to shop, all Macy’s stores act as fulfillment centers from which merchandise orders can be shipped directly to consumers’ homes. The stores also serve as locations where customers can pick up merchandise they bought online, and they are the origination point for same-day delivery in 17 markets. Macy’s has combined its store base with its digital platform, which includes apps and mobile-enhanced websites, to drive the omnichannel experience for customers and allow them to shop anytime, anywhere. The combined offering enhances profitability and drives new customers to Macy’s. As a point of reference, Macy’s announced a restructuring of its merchandising and marketing operations in January, with the same goal of pushing more aggressively toward the omnichannel model. At the time, both Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s restructured their respective merchandising and marketing functions so they could develop and present assortments seamlessly across channels and provide a single, omnichannel customer engagement experience across product categories. The restructuring was done to create a unified merchandising and marketing organization—a hybrid of in-store and online buying—to enable the companies to more quickly and nimbly select merchandise, assort inventories and serve customers, no matter where, when or how they wanted to shop. Macy’s will announce the locations to be closed at a later date, once it completes a careful analysis which is currently under way, and makes final decisions. Over the last five years, 52 Macy’s stores have been closed and 12 new Macy’s stores have been opened. In addition, six new Macy’s Backstage off-price locations will be opening this fall.