Macy’s Workshop Accelerator Program Brings New Brands And Products To Stores

Macy’s announced the 2023 class of The Workshop – the retail industry’s longest running accelerator program dedicated to driving growth and providing opportunity to diverse and women-owned businesses.

This year’s 25 business owners will have the opportunity to participate in a month-long program where they’ll learn from Macy’s executives, sell their products at a pop-up shop at macys.com, and compete for $100,000 in business grants, on top of the $5,000 grant each participating brand receives.

Through Macy’s, Inc.’s social purpose platform, Mission Every One, these underrepresented businesses will have the opportunity to reach new customers via a month-long digital pop-up shop on macys.com, receive a business grant and critical education about a capital program to help scale their businesses.

Launched in 2011, The Workshop at Macy’s was created to spread growth and provide opportunities to a lot of the diverse and women-owned businesses. “The program has many great components,” said Michelle Wang, vice president of retail diversity strategy at Macy’s.

“The pop-up shop is a great way to feature these brands while we’re hosting The Workshop at Macy’s, so for the month of May, their products will be sold online,” Wang said. “After the graduation, we invite participants to onboard and we introduce them to as many industry buyers as possible, until they complete the program.”

Every participant receives a $5,000 business grant upon completion of the program, but there’s also a pitch competition that they’ll have an opportunity to enter towards the end of The Workshop, and a partnership with the Macy’s sourcing team. The winner of the pitch competition will receive $100,000 in business grants, bringing the total investment to about $250,000.

The pitch competition is judged by Macy’s executives and the retailer’s partners from The 15% Pledge, Foundry and Klarna. The competition goes through a few stages, Wang said. “There’s a lengthy application process and what we do is we open that up every year between September and November. The ones we believe are qualified and at the stage where they can really benefit from this programming, move into second round interviews in January where they’re interviewed by our merchants.

“This is to get that closeness and relationship-building and understand how we can help them,” Wang said. “We finalize the class in February, and from February through April we start to give them a little pre-work and pre-work from our partners and then they start the program in May.”

They could be in varying stages of development in terms of where they are as a company and as a brand. They learn about different topics like manufacturing and understanding your consumer data understanding your customers. We bring in Babson College, which is the nation’s leading business school for entrepreneurship, and we bring in Google
GOOG
and Meta. They could be in different stages and they have to decide who they engage with and who could offer the most help in growing their brand.

S.P.U.R. Pathways: Shared Purpose, Unlimited Reach, is a multiyear, multifaceted funding program to advance entrepreneurial growth, close wealth gaps and shatter systemic barriers faced by diverse-owned and underrepresented businesses. Launched in late 2022, S.P.U.R. Pathways offers underrepresented businesses access to critical funding, as well as a full suite of educational resources, fueling a holistic supplier ecosystem and acting as a catalyst for outsized growth.

Created in partnership with Momentus Capital, the program includes a range of financing options such as loans for working capital and commercial real estate, and growth equity, all designed to meet the needs of diverse-owned and underrepresented businesses at various stages of growth. Through The Workshop’s programming, brands will have an opportunity to meet capital markets professionals, learn about products and apply to the program.

Led and designed by a consortium of experts from Macy’s, Babson College, Google, and Meta, among others, The Workshop at Macy’s has helped develop more than 195 diverse-owned businesses since 2011 and continues to create a viable pipeline of enterprises that will grow to become successful partners with Macy’s, Inc. and other retailers.

Past graduates include Alex Woo, Urban Hydration, Verona Collection, Twelve NYC, Mateo New York, Fe Noel, Foot Nanny and Eleven60. This year’s current class is made up of apparel brands Besida, Carlton Jones, Goddess Rising Intimates, Kahindo, Monzlapur, Moxie Fitness Apparel, ObservaMe and Tony by Toni.

Beauty products include Bea’s Bayou Skincare, Cardon, DefineMe, Ivyees, Maple Organics, and TOA Waters. Center Core featured brands are b.c.e Custom Shoe, Ms. Jetsetter, Po Campo, The Standard Shoes, and Twelve AM. Home labels include Aya & Pete, domoINK, Rochelle Porter, Surprise Powerz, and Wax Buffalo. Nola Tawk represents kids brands.

“We announced S.P.U.R. Pathways, which is a multi-faceted funding program. It was really meant to tackle the access to funding challenges that exists today,” said Wang. “When we look at diverse and underrepresented businesses, it gives those businesses access to critical funding. We really think a lot about what we can offer, it’s acting intentionally as a catalyst for outside growth.

“In terms of the coursework, we bring back previous graduates,” Wang added. “We have a workshop with our internal team that talks about design and forecasting. We have an array of topics. That’s the great part about it, they touch so many different categories of businesses.”

The businesses range across a varying representation of groups and stages. Other than that they are the best of the best candidates this year, the 25 members of the class have little in common.

“Last year, our first pitch competition winner was Black Market Paper,” said Wang. “They create today what we would call today holiday wrapping and trim for the Black community. We knew there was an opportunity in the market, and there was continued opportunity and runway for what this brand could do.

“Every year there are categories that give us an idea of the opportunity,” Wang added, noting that partnering with brands isn’t automatic. “Obviously, we’d love to partner whenever they’re ready to partner. This is where the business grants come in. It’s up to them to say where the business grants can help. It’s up to them to take that and really invest where they think they have the most opportunity.

“Our winner receives a partnership from our sourcing team,” Wang said. “There’s also the other avenue of S.P.U.R., which includes financing options such as loans for working capital and commercial real estate, and growth equity, all designed to meet the needs of diverse-owned and underrepresented businesses at various stages of growth.

Through The Workshop’s programming, brands will have an opportunity to meet capital markets professionals, learn about products and apply to the program. “If that were the challenge for the brand, we have an entire eco-system to help them,” Wang said. “It’s been important to see how we empower our diverse suppliers. I can’t wait for the pitch competition in a few weeks.”