Q&A with President Sona Chawla - Easy and Convenient Holiday Shopping at Kohl’s
This holiday season Kohl’s will provide customers more ways to easily shop, purchase and receive the gifts on their shopping list, all while gifting the shopper time back for moments that matter most with family and friends. We sat down with Kohl’s President Sona Chawla to hear why Kohl’s is customer’s first stop to shop this holiday season and how its network of more than 1,100 stores is helping deliver purchases to customers fast.
Q1: How is Kohl’s helping its customers save time this holiday season?
A: At Kohl’s, we know the most important part of the holidays is spending time with family and loved ones. Our associates have prepared all year to provide our customers timesaving conveniences in our stores and online across Kohls.com and Kohl’s Mobile App to maximize their time this holiday while also providing an incredible value on amazing products to fulfill their shopping lists.
Q2: Kohl’s anticipates shipping more than 60 million units this holiday season. How is Kohl’s preparing to fulfill the influx of customer demand during the coming months?
A: We anticipate hiring 90,000 seasonal associates across our more than 1,100 stores, distribution and e-commerce centers, as well as our credit locations nationwide. This is a slight increase over last year. In addition to our fulfillment centers, we will leverage our entire store network to deliver Kohls.com orders to customers fast with our ship from store capability, among others. In fact, we anticipate our stores will help to manage up to 40% of demand this holiday season, ensuring our customers are getting their orders when and how they want them.
Q3: We know Kohl’s customers love Kohl’s Mobile App and the ability to easily shop on the go. How is the app helping customers check off their shopping list?
A: This holiday season, we want to give our customers an integrated shopping experience across all channels, including Kohl’s popular mobile app. Kohl’s Mobile App allows customers to research and purchase the right gift just how they want. With the ease of the Digital Wallet, customers can quickly view their price for any gift with all of their coupons and promotions applied instantly and easily complete their purchase all within the app.
Q4: Customers love the convenience of shopping Kohls.com while also the instant joy and gratification of picking up orders at their Kohl’s store. How is Kohl’s blending the in-store and online conveniences for customers?
A: Buy online, pick up in store offers our customers the opportunity to pick up their online orders at their local Kohl’s stores and alleviate shipping time. This holiday customers can get their orders faster than ever, with most buy online, pick up in store orders ready within just one hour. Kohl’s has more than 100,000 items available for buy online, pick up in store and we’re planning for approximately 5 million buy online, pick up in store orders during November and December - that equates to more than 10 million orders packed by our store associates!
What I’m most excited about is Kohl’s buy online, ship to store option, recently launched to all Kohl’s stores just in time for holiday shopping. Customers are now able to select the option for their online orders to be delivered direct to their local Kohl’s store for free. Ship to store significantly broadens the merchandise on Kohls.com available for free shipping.
Q5: How are Kohl’s associates using technology to provide an easy shopping experience this holiday season?
A: It’s vital our team of more than 140,000 associates is supported with the technologies that will help them serve our customers - anything from helping a customer find what they’re looking for quickly in-store to completing a sale fast at the register. We’ve added 2,500 handheld devices for associates completing omnichannel fulfillment. We’ve also introduced an app that helps associates replenish the right products at the right time from the stockroom to the store floor which increases productivity for our associates and findability for our customers.
Q6: Why do you believe Kohl’s will be the go-to shopping destination this holiday season?
A: In addition to providing gift givers the most sought-after items at an incredible value, we have put so much thought into preparing our stores to provide the best experience to our customers so that completing their holiday shopping with Kohl’s can be easy and even fun. From Santa visiting our stores throughout December to the excitement and commitment from our associates, there’s no doubt customers are going to make Kohl’s their shopping destination this holiday. Kohls.com is just as important as a shopping destination, and we've worked behind-the-scenes to prepare for the high volume of online traffic that comes from the excitement around all of our great deals!
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information
This press release contains “forward-looking statements.” Kohl’s intends forward-looking terminology such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “may,” “intends,” “will,” “should,” “expects” or similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause Kohl’s actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those described in Item 1A in Kohl’s Annual Report on Form 10-K and other factors as may periodically be described in Kohl’s filings with the SEC.
