How do we tap into that? And how do we deliver relevant changes, whether that's in our physical assortment in our stores, or in the way we interact with customers digitally? The fourth building block is better use of data, moving from what I think has been pretty much commonplace in retail, relying on data that the firm has about itself and its customers, and instead recognizing that the universe knows a lot about our customers, probably more than we do. Right now, most folks don't start that transaction until they're in the store, but we're going to find a way this year to get customers to start that transaction when they're not in the store. It's a super simple process: Scan your item, put it in a bag, drop it in the box. We're applying that same thinking to returns. We've deployed it to over a third of our stores right now, and we'll have that in all stores by the end of the summer. Instead, we built something that probably feels more like the Panera pick-up experience than a typical “buy online, pick up in store” experience. It turns out that no customer wants to have to interact with people to pick up an order, and yet most people built their order pickup experience to depend on store associates or spent an awful lot of money on these super complicated and expensive lockers. Third is a great experience in the stores, and that's a combination of better tools for our associates to help fulfill orders and help customers find things and then a better experience for the customer themselves. We're doing more to make sure that the experience when you show up is fast, easy and increasingly personalized. For example, we took our online checkout from four pages down to one. No one really does the press release, “So we made our app faster,” but in fact, that's something that's really important - sometimes that's more important than new features. That primarily shows up in simple things, like making sure our website and our app are fast. Kohl's Chief Technology and Supply Chain Officer Paul Gaffney Photo: Kohl's We have teams that are focused on things that our end customers do, like search, product exploration and recommendations. 1, which we didn't talk about at investor day but we've talked about in the past, is reorganizing the technology organization to be focused on end-customer populations. How is the IT organization driving some of those initiatives? This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.Īt the company’s recent investor day, Kohl’s spoke about increasing personalization, driving self-service in stores and growing the ecommerce business. In a recent interview with Protocol, Gaffney spoke about the company’s push to improve customer experiences and how COVID-19 has impacted its ways of thinking about technology investments. Those initiatives will be critical for getting customers to actually buy online (nearly 70% of people abandon their online shopping carts, according to the Baymard Institute) and keeping costs down. That means that in the background, there must be changes to streamline the company’s web designs, as well as modifications to its supply chain management software to maintain a lean inventory amid a stocking pivot. By cutting down the time it takes to get customers the items they want with tech-enabled pickup and return stations and by suggesting cross-brand clothing pairings based on other shoppers’ buying data, the company hopes that convenience and upselling will help it avoid the bankruptcy fate that competitors Sears and JCPenney have met. Private equity firm Sycamore Partners and department-store chain Hudson’s Bay have put in separate bids to take over the company, indicating that they see further value for Kohl’s under private ownership than on the market.īut Kohl’s Chief Technology and Supply Chain Officer Paul Gaffney thinks technology could play an important role in the company’s plan to boost its ecommerce business, streamline its self-service pickup and integrate with other brands. The company has lost 17% of its market share since 2011, according to UBS, and announced several changes at its investor day on March 7, including a pivot away from its core department-store model toward one centered around “active and casual” clothing. Amid pressure from ecommerce competitors like Amazon, department stores have struggled to shift business online and cater to customers with changing preferences, and Kohl’s has been slower to adapt than other retailers.
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