The shopping habits of consumers have shifted from brick-and-mortar to smartphone and laptop, so Kohl’s Corp. is pushing ahead with a strategy to open smaller physical locations and a fifth e-commerce fulfillment center.
The Menomonee Falls-based retailer announced Tuesday it would open four small-format stores outside of Wisconsin and the e-commerce center in the third quarter.
Kohl’s plans to move close to half of its stores to smaller locations by the end of 2017.
The 937,000-square-foot fulfillment center, which was first mentioned during Kohl’s second quarter 2016 earnings call, will be built in Plainfield, Indiana to process the company’s growing number of online orders.
The four new 35,000-square-foot stores will be located in North Smithfield, Rhode Island; Blue Ash, Ohio; East Windsor, New Jersey; and Montebello, California.
Once they open, Kohl’s will have eight small-format stores.
In March, Kohl’s announced it would relocate its Greendale store from Southridge Mall to new mixed-use development 84South in Greenfield next year.
The space at Southridge is two levels and 85,000 square feet. The 84South store will be one story and 55,000 square feet.
Shares of Kohl’s have fallen 7.7 percent in the past month.
The company’s net income was $208 million in the second quarter, compared to $140 million during the same time last year. Earnings per share were at $1.24, up 2 percent over the same quarter last year.
Total sales of $4.14 billion were slightly below last year’s $4.18 billion.
The company ended the second quarter with 1,154 Kohl’s stores in 49 states, compared to 1,150 Kohl’s stores at the same time last year. Kohl’s also operates 12 FILA outlets and four Off/Aisle clearance centers.
