Dive Brief:

• Macy’s is getting assertive with its mobile shopping options ahead of the holiday shopping season. It is expanding its iBeacon messaging capabilities through Shopkick from its flagship locations in San Francisco and New York to stores across the country — reportedly the largest implementation of Beacon technologies in retail to date.

• The retailer is also introducing an image-recognition app called Image Search, developed in its Idea Lab. The app is a stand-alone as well as incorporated into the Macy’s app, and will make suggestions based on customers’ images for items that can be found online or in store.

• And the retailer is offering same-day delivery in partnership with startup Deliv in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New Jersey, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and Washington.

Dive Insight:

Macy’s is one of the first retailers to have such a broad set of mobile shopping capabilities ahead of this holiday season. In addition to Beacons installed in several stores across the United States and its image-recognition app — which will crucially also be integrated into its own Macy’s app — the retailer announced that Macy’s and Bloomingdales will accept Apple Pay. In-store pickup is also being expanded, and same-day delivery will be available in eight cities.

As long as the department store has the merchandise people want to buy, it is making it decidedly easier to buy it using devices at home and in stores.