The Menomonee Falls, Wis. based department store chain has established clothing stores in 700 of its sites and on Kohls.com. The collection displays a better stability of models, and manufacturers have been searching the marketplace for company names to replace what has been an over-reliance on proprietary labels. It’s been weighted toward relaxed styles in seasons history, but now has been infused with cultural, situation and occupation.
In contrast, the business has been testing graduation and gathering styles in students at select locations.
“There’s been a major development in,” said Sarah Hagland, Kohl’s executive vice president and general product manager for children’s. Kohl’s has worked to complete “the white area in situation, career and social dresses”, Hagland said in an unique interview.
With the changes in position, “It’s been allowing us to have the kind of wide blow, across any situation, which we needed”, the Kohl’s executive said.
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Among the clothing brands just added: Andrew Marc for organized career looks, London Times, Betsey & Adam, and Harper Rose for particular occasion styles in florals, chiffon and with female details, and on the modern and updated side, Taylor and Maison Tara are offered. Nicole Miller and Nanette Lapore’s clothes are also available.
“This is our first force into national-brand garments. It’s a brand new approach. We are working across the business with important regional companies”, said Hagland.
From only-at-Kohl’s companies — Draper James, Sonoma Goods for Life, Nine West, LC Lauren Conrad and Just Vera Vera Wang— there’s “a wider, enhanced selection” of clothes, Hagland said.
The new dress areas, or “pads” as Hagland referred to them, have twice as many fixtures on the selling floor, 20 to 24 versus 12 previously, enabling Kohl’s to tell richer print and color stories with dresses. Following dealings with market brands dating back as far back as October 2023, Hagland said, the category was moved to the front of the store, where Nine West, Vera Vera Wang, and Lauren Conrad are located. The dress shops started operating in March.
She said, “This is an amazing opportunity to get into what our customer was asking for. We actually identified this as a white space. Kohl’s was not necessarily known as a dress destination.”
The strategy represents a degree of trading up for Kohl’s, with the national dress brands priced under $150, and the sweet spot at the $79.99, $89.99 and $99.99 price point. That is in line with Kohl’s private label dresses, which are typically priced for less than $60.
The approach also reflects the larger-picture Kohl’s, which has intensified efforts to reverse declining sales trends. In the first quarter of this year, net sales decreased 5.3 percent and comparable sales fell 4.4 percent. In 2023, net sales decreased 3.4 percent to $16.6 billion in sales, comparable sales declined 4.7 percent.
However, Kohl’s is aiming for $2 billion in additional sales over the coming years through brand additions and assortment changes in categories like men’s wear and dresses, as well as through its Sephora and Babies R Us stores. Also, last March, Kohl’s unveiled a revamped home assortment marked by pumped-up previously underplayed presentations of wall art, botanicals, storage, frames, glass, ceramics, gifting and impulse items, as well as the introduction of the pet supply and lighting categories to the selling floor for the first time.
According to Hagland, selling best in dresses this season are florals, crepes, chiffons, feminine details like ruffles, thicker knit fabrications, pleats, color and prints. Linen has also been successful with sales. “We are starting to deliver some of that fall color palette right now,” including browns, teals, deep blues and merlot reds.
Through the start of the summer, Hagland mentioned that “newness is continuing to flow in and the dress assortment is continuing to grow.”
As Nick Jones, Kohl’s chief merchandising and digital officer, said recently, “The main thrust is about bringing in newness and fresh goods more frequently, having an overall broader assortment, and appealing to a broader customer.”
A look from London Times at Kohl’s.