3-8 Macy’s, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates approximately 840 department stores in the United States.

Its retail stores sell a range of merchandise, including apparel, home furnishings, and housewares. Senior management has decided that Macy’s needs to tailor merchandise more to local tastes and that the colors, sizes, brands, and styles of clothing and other merchandise should be based on the sales patterns in each individual Macy’s store. How could information systems help Macy’s management implement this new strategy? What pieces of data should these systems collect to help management make merchandising decisions that support this strategy?