JCPenney Goes Big On Omnichannel

Fighting off years of sluggish sales growth and diminishing footfall to their stores, JCPenney has spent much of the last 18 months reinventing itself. It has been developing house apparel brands, leveling up its partnership with Sephora and looking increasingly to omnichannel management as the future of pushing conversion across the chain.

Much of this change has been carried out under the watch of JCP’s new CEO Marvin R. Ellison, who took the helm at the firm after a period of decline and derision about a year ago.

At a recent presentation for analysts, the department store said the next phase of its reinvention will see the company looking to expand and enhance its eCommerce and omnichannel experience. That effort will commence with a redesigned app, which will be a multipurpose digital tool for shoppers designed to help them locate items in stores, apply coupons and access their JCPenney Rewards all in one mobile hub. Penney’s has also invested heavily in back-end systems that support an enterprise-wide fulfillment strategy, aiming to minimize markdowns and improve customer service. As of today there are 250 JCP stores able to fulfill online orders and ship directly to customers, and around 150,000 items that can be ordered for same-day pick up at any store nationwide within four hours of the order being placed. The goal for the rest of the year is to speed up standard delivery time to two days or less for more than 95 percent of the U.S. population.

“Since becoming CEO a year ago, the team and I have made considerable progress balancing the art and science of retail by improving our execution in omnichannel, marketing, store operations, supply chain and merchandising,” Ellison told investors. “There is still much work to do, but I am confident that our focus on sales growth, new technology and expense management will continue to accelerate our turnaround and create shareholder value.”