| Discount | Offer description | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 80% off | Macy's sale section: up to 80% off fashion, shoes & jewelry | Dec 19, 2026 |
| 40-70% off | Grab clearance finds at 40-70% off before they sell out | Dec 19, 2026 |
| 30% off (max $100) | Open a Macy's Card and take 30% off today's purchase | Dec 19, 2026 |
| Free shipping | Free shipping on every beauty order — no minimum required | Dec 19, 2026 |
Based on our publishing history, the months with the most Macy's offers have been January, August, December. In October activity is low.
This chart counts the Macy's coupons we have published each month, not the store's total discounts. The busiest months tend to be January, August, December.
Macy's issues plenty of codes, but the number that changes the most orders is the loyalty tier attached to the account that pays. The free shipping minimum, whether a mailed return costs you anything, and how fast points become spendable credit all move with that tier, and none of it shows on a coupon card. The same bag with the same code ships free for a Platinum member paying with a Macy's Card and waits until $49 for a shopper who never signed up. Settle the tier and the card first; the code is the last variable.
Five mechanisms run all year without a promotion, and they matter most on the merchandise codes never touch — which at Macy's is a large slice of the store.
| Channel | What it gives you | How you qualify | Works alongside a code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Star Rewards points | One point per dollar at the free Bronze tier; every 1,000 points is issued as $10 of Star Money | Sign up online or in store, no credit card needed | Yes, on rewards-earning merchandise |
| Macy's Card tiers | Two points per dollar once annual card spend passes $1, three from $500 and five from $1,200, plus lower shipping minimums | Approved Macy's Card | Yes |
| Price adjustment | Refund of the difference if the price drops within 10 days of the order date | Order placed without a promotional discount | No — a promotional discount and a price adjustment are not combined |
| Macy's Backstage | Off-price floor inside stores; base Star Rewards points still accrue there, bonus points do not | None | No — Backstage is excluded from promotions |
| Star Money | Credit issued in $10 blocks that expires 30 days after it is issued | Reaching 1,000 points | Yes |
Free shipping at Macy's is not one number. Platinum and Gold members paying with a Macy's Card ship free with no minimum at all. Silver members ship free from $25 when the Macy's Card pays. Bronze and Silver members paying any other way wait until $39, and a shopper outside Star Rewards waits until $49 within the contiguous United States. That spread is the reason two people can price the identical bag on the same afternoon and be quoted different shipping.
Returns run on a 30-day counter — from the purchase date in a store, from the delivery date online — and the tier decides the cost again. Star Rewards members mail a return back at no charge, while everyone else has a $9.99 return shipping fee plus tax deducted from the refund. Carrying the box into any Macy's store is free for every shopper, which makes the store the cheapest return route by a wide margin and worth a detour on anything bulky. Whichever route you take, the item has to arrive in original saleable condition with its tags.
Two carve-outs are worth reading before you order. Free return shipping does not extend to gift cards, food, gourmet gifts, Beauty Boxes, lamps, wall art, mirrors, furniture, mattresses or area rugs; several of those still come back, but not at Macy's expense, and furniture and mattresses run on separate terms of their own. Food, beverages, live plants, gourmet gifts and gift cards are final sale and do not come back at all. One structural note for the United States: there is no federal right to return an online purchase, so every line above is Macy's own commercial policy rather than a legal floor.
Most codes that fail at macys.com have not expired; they have met excluded merchandise. The same carve-outs repeat from promotion to promotion: Bonus Buys, Deals of the Day, Everyday Values, Last Act clearance, Our Lowest Prices of the Season, Specials, The Market @ Macy's, gift cards, gourmet food and anything sold under the Backstage banner. Behind that category list sits a brand list running past a hundred names — Apple, Dyson, Le Creuset, KitchenAid, Nike, UGG and Tempur-Pedic among them — excluded even at full price.
Three checks before writing a code off. Look at the product page for an Everyday Values or Last Act label, because those two account for a large share of rejections. Read that promotion's own exclusion list for the brand you are buying, since brand exclusions are published offer by offer rather than site-wide. Then confirm the item is regular Macy's merchandise and not a gift card or a gourmet food item. There is also a trade-off almost nobody weighs: a promotional discount and the 10-day price adjustment are not combined, so on merchandise you expect to be marked down inside the next week and a half, taking the code can be the more expensive decision.
Macy's discounts on a short cycle rather than in two big seasons. Flash and one-day sales land repeatedly through the year, while the Friends and Family event is the one that reaches the widest slice of full-price apparel and beauty. The national windows — Presidents Day, Memorial Day, back-to-school, Labor Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday — set the deepest pricing on home goods and tech. Holiday buying gets extra room on the return side: Macy's publishes a start date in early October each season and accepts those purchases back until the end of January, far longer than the standard counter and decisive when a gift sits unopened for weeks. Outside those windows the patient play is to buy without a code and claim the 10-day price adjustment if the tag moves.
| Term | Macy's | Kohl's | Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free shipping without the store card | From $49 with no loyalty account, from $39 as a member | From $49 | Included with the Circle Card |
| Free shipping through the store card | No minimum at Platinum and Gold, from $25 at Silver | Monthly free shipping events at MVC status, reached at $600 of annual card spend | On Target.com purchases paid with the card |
| Standard return window | 30 days | 180 days on most merchandise, 60 on beauty, 30 on premium electronics and watches | 90 days, plus 30 more with the Circle Card |
| Returning to a physical store | Free at any Macy's | Free at any Kohl's | Free at any Target |
| Strongest on | Apparel, beauty, fine jewelry and home | The longest return counter of the three | Household basics and everyday restocking |
When Macy's is the wrong call: if you are buying an excluded brand or an Everyday Values item without Star Rewards status, you are paying list price and carrying a $9.99 return risk on top, and the department store next door gives you six times the counter to change your mind on the same kind of merchandise. Beauty is the other split — a specialist such as Sephora runs its own points economy that a department-store code cannot reach.
Open the shopping bag before you reach payment, paste the code into the promotional code field and select apply. The bag total updates on the spot. If the total does not move at all, the code was accepted but every item in the bag falls under an exclusion.
Not necessarily. Macy's publishes a separate exclusions article for app discounts, so an offer can behave differently there than it does on macys.com. Check that list before assuming a site promotion carries across.
Yes. Points are calculated on rewards-earning purchases less returns, credits, discounts and adjustments, so a discount comes off the points base as well as off the total. Bonus point events skip several departments outright, among them furniture, mattresses, rugs, tech, gift cards and third-party sellers.
Every day. Each code is tested in the macys.com bag and then relabeled — verified, offer or expired — rather than deleted, so you can also see what stopped working recently.
Expired entries stay listed on purpose. Macy's reissues the same promotional mechanics on a short cycle, so a recently expired code is a preview of the next one. Meanwhile, try the offers that need no code, since those apply straight from the link.