Float "Beauty of Beijing", decorated with tourism landmarks, marches through streets in New York during Macy's Thanksgiving Parade on Nov 27. It is the first time ever that the parade has a float with a Chinese theme in its 88-year history. [Lu Huiquan/For China Daily]

The presence of a China-themed float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for the first time was perhaps symbolic of the rising importance of Chinese customers to one of the world's largest department stores.

The Macy's in Herald Square in New York has undergone a $400 million renovation over the last four years, reorganizing its main floor where handbags and cosmetics are located, revamping its shoe store - which the company says is the biggest in the world at the size of two football fields - and most importantly, bringing in new high-end luxury brands like Gucci, Burberry and Longchamp.

International tourists are making up more of Macy's business, including the high-spending Chinese, who spend more in the US than any other foreign visitors. Macy's has seen traffic from Chinese visitors grow in the last several years, particularly those headed to the Herald Square store.

"It's really increasing by leaps and bounds," said Kristen Esposito, vice-president of tourism marketing and development. "The UK used to be our No 1 group, now the Brazilians are outpacing them and the Chinese are right behind."

Macy's gets more Chinese visitors by volume at its West Coast locations, but the company has seen a significant increase in tourists as they move East. The Herald Square location is starting to log up to 30 to 40 percent more tourists a month, Esposito said.

"Cities like New York and Chicago and Boston are high-penetration, with a lot of the direct flights that are now coming from China to these cities," she said. China Southern Airlines launched a new direct flight between New York and Guangzhou in August, which came shortly after a direct Boston-Beijing Hainan Airlines route in June.

Macy's tailors its locations to its customers, and for the large numbers of Asian visitors who visit the Herald Square location, it has expanded its brand lineup to include more American lines. American designer labels cost more in China, so the Chinese love to bring back clothes from names such as like Ralph Lauren Polo, Tommy Hilfiger and Michael Kors when they're visiting the US, Esposito said.

Handbags, accessories, cosmetics and fragrances are top items that the Chinese shop for when they visit Macy's Herald Square, said Esposito, and those items are located in the main floor adjacent to the luxury shops within the department store.

"It's the convenience of having a one-stop shop. To shop at Woodbury Commons (50 miles north of New York) - who is a competitor of ours - they would have to get on a bus for an hour," said Esposito. "We're very promotional, and we have very competitive pricing. I think that that's the exciting thing about Macy's, because we have price points for everybody, where we have moderately priced shoes and then you have shoes from Gucci or Louis Vuitton that can run to $1,000 a pair."

Macy's has appeared on Chinese social media platforms to raise brand awareness for US-bound tourists.