Smaller stores, less inventory and newly formed partnerships with Amazon and Under Armour have helped the company turn around its business in recent months. On Thursday, Kohl’s reported the largest increase in quarterly sales since 2001. Now the retailer is teaming up with discount grocer Aldi to test groceries at up to 10 of its department stores. Soon, some customers will be able to pick up milk and eggs along with their cargo shorts and yoga pants.
The goal, executives say: to get more people into their stores.
“The key priority we have as a company is to drive traffic,” Kevin Mansell, the chief executive of Kohl’s said in a Thursday earnings call. “We’re focused on traffic-driving retailers: Groceries, supermarket chains, they drive a lot of traffic. We’re finally on a path where we’re getting more [shoppers].”
Sales at Kohl’s stores open at least a year rose 6.3 percent during the most recent quarter, the company said Thursday, while profits increased 38 percent.
