Kohl’s To Debut New eCommerce Facility, Small-Format Stores

Retailer Kohl’s will boost both its brick-and-mortar and eCommerce capabilities this year by adding four small-format, brick-and-mortar locations to its roster of stores and a fifth eCommerce fulfillment center. The firm expects to have these new outlets up and running by the third quarter as part of its plan to optimize select retail locations nationwide.

The new eCommerce fulfillment center will be located in Plainfield, Indiana, and Kohl’s expects to begin shipping Kohls.com online retail orders from the new location by the end of this month. The 937,000-square-foot facility will be home to the most recent technology, allowing the company to quickly process, fill and ship online orders as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The Plainfield facility will join existing eCommerce locations in California, Maryland, Ohio and Texas. In addition, all Kohl’s retail locations will continue to fulfill and ship select orders from the company’s online retail storefront.

The four brick-and-mortar locations Kohl’s will debut by Oct. 2017 will be located in Rhode Island, Ohio, New Jersey and California. Each of the new stores will showcase 35,000-square-feet of retail space as part of the chain’s initiative to maximize efficiency in more compact settings.

Kohl’s is also pursuing innovation by changing the interior layouts of approximately 300 stores to “rightsize” them, allowing for a better consumer experience and a way to increase profitability. The company has achieved this goal by adjusting fixtures and balancing its product offerings. It expects nearly half of the Kohl’s locations nationwide will be operationally smaller by the end of this year.

“Our stores remain at the core of our omnichannel strategy and we will continue to invest in them by opening smaller formats, rightsizing and optimizing our selling space and working to ensure that shopping in our stores is an engaging and inspiring experience for our customers,” said CEO Kevin Mansell in a news release. “We have set a goal to be the best-in-class omnichannel retailer, and opening our fifth eCommerce distribution center will support the delivery of online orders faster and more efficiently to customers nationwide.”