Kohl’s aims to increase sales to 21 billion dollars by FY17

Kohl’s has announced new initiatives under the company’s strategic framework, called the ‘Greatness Agenda’. To measure success in the near-term, the company has set out to reach three primary goals by the end of 2017: to increase sales to 21 billion dollars, be in the 90th percentile for associate engagement and best-in-class for customer engagement.

“The Greatness Agenda is our multi-year plan and its working. Since announcing this strategy one year ago, we’ve changed the trajectory of our performance trend line from negative to positive,” said Kevin Mansell, Kohl’s Chairman, CEO and President, as he shared the updated strategy to an audience of retail industry leaders at the WWD Apparel & Retail CEO Summit in New York.

Successful implementation in the first year

The Greatness Agenda continues to be supported by the five pillars it is built upon: amazing product, incredible savings, easy experience, personalized connections and winning teams.

In the first year of the Greatness Agenda, Kohl’s witnessed success in its newly launched Yes2You Rewards loyalty program – now over 33 million members strong, the rollout of an expanded and elevated beauty department, introduction of personalized marketing efforts, launch of a highly-ranked new mobile app, double digit year-to-date growth and significant market share gain in the active and wellness business, and the launch of several key national brands, including FitBit, Madden Girl, Columbia, Samsung, Bliss and more.

During the second year of the Greatness Agenda, Kohl’s will seek out and take advantage of the following opportunities, supporting each of the five strategic pillars that the company believes will accelerate the course of business.

Renewed efforts to drive further growth

The company will now focus on creating unique assortments by store to drive local relevancy as well as growing the women’s apparel business. “We recognized quickly that our actions on localization were bearing fruit and we needed to elevate our vision,” Mansell said, adding, “Our goal now is to create unique assortments by individual store and complete the process across our entire merchandise offering by the middle of next year.”

Kohl’s will also launch new formats and distribution channels to increase sales, while aiming to become world class in digital by creating a seamless experience in-store, online or on mobile devices. “We have also leveraged the strength of our exclusive brands to create completely new retail outlet locations solely selling our proprietary brands, starting with FILA. Next year, we will open 10 to 15 FILA stores in outlet malls across the country. Additionally, after seeing the potential from our first Off-Aisle by Kohl’s pilot store opened last year, we will open two more Off-Aisle by Kohl’s locations in 2016. All three of these new formats create new revenue streams and growth for Kohl’s,” said Mansell.

Kohl’s would also divert its energies on winning new customers by capturing greater share of Kohl’s core customer audience and targeting two growing segments of the population: millennials and Hispanic families.

“We have two efforts underway to ensure we have the winning teams in place that will drive the success of the business. In fact, 25 percent of the corporate roles we have today did not exist three years ago,” Mansell said on a concluding note.