Most people who ask how to become a Macy's supplier are really asking three different questions at once, and Macy's answers them through three different doors. There's the door for product vendors who want their goods on the sales floor. There's the door for non-retail suppliers selling services and operational goods to the company itself. And there's the supplier diversity track for minority-, women-, veteran-, and LGBTQ-owned firms. Walk through the wrong one and you'll wait on a queue that was never going to call your number.
Here's how each door actually works, what the program asks for, and where certification gives you an edge.
What Macy's actually buysMacy's, Inc. is the parent of Macy's, Bloomingdale's, and Bluemercury. That spread matters because it changes what "supplier" means.
If you make a product, you're chasing a merchandise vendor relationship. Apparel, beauty, home goods, accessories, anything that lands on a shelf or in the online catalog. These decisions sit with category buyers and merchants, and they're driven by margin, sell-through, and fit with the assortment.
If you sell to the company rather than to its shoppers, you're a non-retail supplier. Think marketing services, IT, facilities, store fixtures, logistics, professional services. Macy's runs a separate non-retail supplier application for exactly this category, and it's the right form for service businesses that would otherwise get lost in the merchandise pipeline.
Knowing which bucket you fall into is the first real decision. The forms, the buyers, and the timelines are not interchangeable.
How registration actually worksFor merchandise and general vendor interest, Macy's points prospective partners to its "Become a Vendor Partner" and vendor application pages on macysinc.com. For service and operational categories, there's a dedicated non-retail supplier application. Submitting either one puts your company in the pool. It does not start a conversation.
This is the part worth being honest about. Macy's states plainly that completing registration "does not guarantee your company will receive a request to bid and/or a contract," and it doesn't imply any procurement relationship with Macy's, Bloomingdale's, or Bluemercury. Translation: registration is necessary, not sufficient. You're making yourself findable for when a buyer has a need that matches what you sell.
The diverse-supplier track is more structured. Macy's runs a minority- and women-owned supplier registration portal, and registration there is a two-step process. The first step takes a few minutes and captures basic company details. The second step runs about 15 minutes and is the one that counts, where you describe your commodities and services in enough depth that a category match can surface. There's no fee to register, and the portal links out to a third-party system to collect the detail. If what you offer maps to a current business need, you'll be asked to submit more.
So the practical move is the same one that works across most large retailers: fill out the long version completely. A half-finished profile is invisible.
How to get noticed instead of just listedSitting in a database is passive. The suppliers who get pulled in do a few specific things.
They write their capability description in the buyer's language, naming the exact commodity categories and NAICS codes they serve rather than vague positioning. They keep the profile current, because buyers search the pool when a need opens, not on your schedule. And they get in front of the supplier diversity team at the events where that team actually shows up.
That last point is concrete for Macy's. The company participates in the National Minority Supplier Development Council ecosystem, including NMSDC educational sessions built around navigating Macy's business diversity programs. NMSDC and WBENC regional events, matchmaker sessions, and conferences are where a registered profile turns into a name a buyer remembers. If you're already certified, those rooms are the highest-leverage place to be.
If you want a sense of how other large retailers and Fortune 500 buyers structure these same pools, our corporate program directory lays out who buys what and how they take applications, so you can prioritize instead of registering everywhere at once.
The certification angleMacy's supplier diversity program is open to U.S.-based minority-, women-, veteran-, and LGBTQ-owned businesses that meet the program's eligibility requirements. The way you prove you belong in that group is third-party certification.
There's no cost to register with the program itself, but certification carries its own fees paid to the certifying body. Macy's points firms to NMSDC for minority business enterprise (MBE) certification and to WBENC for women's business enterprise (WBE) certification. Those are the two that come up most often in Macy's materials. Veteran-owned and LGBTQ-owned firms generally certify through the corresponding national bodies (NaVOBA and the NGLCC), which is the standard pattern across corporate programs.
Certification does two things. It qualifies you for the diverse-supplier track, and it makes you countable. When Macy's reports diverse spend to its stakeholders, only certified suppliers roll up into those numbers, which is part of why buyers actively look for certified firms when a category opens.
If MBE certification through NMSDC is your path, our NMSDC certification guide walks through what the affiliates ask for and how long it takes. And if the paperwork across multiple agencies is what's stalling you, CertifyAll captures your business details once and handles the applications so you're not rebuilding the same packet five times.
The Workshop at Macy's: the side door worth knowingMacy's runs an accelerator most vendors never hear about. The Workshop at Macy's, launched in 2011, is a retail development program for underrepresented business owners that pairs education and mentorship with a real shot at getting product onto Macy's shelves. Cohorts are selected by application, and recent classes have brought in groups of more than two dozen entrepreneurs at a time.
This is the closest thing Macy's has to a true on-ramp rather than a waiting room. For a product company that's diverse-owned but not yet vendor-ready, The Workshop is often a better first move than the cold registration portal, because it's designed to build the operational readiness buyers screen for. Apply when applications open, and treat it as a parallel track to registration, not a replacement.
On the Tier-2 question: large retailers increasingly track diverse spend that flows through their prime suppliers, so if you can't land a direct Macy's contract, becoming a subcontractor to one of Macy's existing Tier-1 vendors can still count toward its diversity reporting. Macy's published program materials center on direct registration and certification rather than a publicly documented Tier-2 portal, so treat the subcontracting route as a relationship play through the primes rather than a form you fill out. If you want to see which firms already hold those prime relationships, our supplier directory is a place to start mapping them.
Where to go from hereThe honest version of becoming a Macy's supplier: pick the right door, complete the long form, get certified through NMSDC or WBENC if you qualify, and show up where the buyers do. The Workshop is the on-ramp if you're a diverse-owned product brand that isn't vendor-ready yet.
If you're weighing Macy's against other large buyers, the corporate program directory shows how each one takes applications and what they recognize, so you can spend your time on the programs that fit what you sell.
Sources: macysinc.com Work With Us / Vendors, Macy's non-retail supplier application, Macy's supplier diversity FAQ & resources, Macy's Supplier Diversity FAQ (PDF), The Workshop at Macy's, Retail Dive on the Macy's accelerator.
