Kohl's shoppers will notice changes as retailer tries to boost sales. Here are 5 store updates.

For the last several years Kohl’s Corp. has been building its relationship with Sephora store-by-store in hopes it will cause shoppers, mostly young females, to come inside and have a look around.

So far, roughly 35% of shoppers with Sephora products in their baskets have another Kohl’s store item as well, according to the company’s quarterly call with analysts on Aug. 28.

“We think there’s a lot of crossover from the Sephora customer into juniors because of the fact that Sephora is a trend product, juniors is a trend product overall. We feel that’s true with accessories as well,” said Kohl’s CEO Tom Kingsbury. “We’re trying to connect those categories as much as possible.”

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Company executives said roughly 40% of Sephora shoppers are new shoppers to Kohl's and Kinsgbury describes Sephora's performance as "phenomenal."

Kohl's had $1.4 billion in Sephora sales in 2023 and expects to grow its Sephora business to $2 billion by 2025, a goal the company has had for more than a year.

Overall the company said it was "disappointed" by its second quarter sales and is hoping these changes ahead of the holiday season will improve sales for the company.

Here's a look at some of the other changes coming to Kohl's stores:

Moving juniors to be closer to Sephora

In some stores, Kohl’s has moved its juniors department to the front of the store, hoping for more crossover sales opportunities.

“We’re moving that product from the middle of the women’s sportswear business, to the front of the store,” Kingsbury said. “We saw a real nice lift in those stores that have able to accomplish that.”

In the third quarter, the company is planning for more stores to move their juniors departments.

Kingsbury said the new emphasis on its juniors business will be easier to create revenue for the company.

“We can really leverage the marketplace in order to turn it around because there’s a lot of products out there and it’s a quick turn,” Kingsbury said.

Jewelry will also be closer to Sephora

The strategy to move the juniors department to the front follows the company's plan to create space for jewelry. In the past Kohl's stores a variety of jewelry options but literally moved them out of stores to make room for Sephora .

Like with juniors, Kohl's is moving jewelry near Sephora.

“Over the past few years, as we made space for Sephora in our stores, we did not do a good job of retaining our jewelry sales, which had been on a consistent sales decline,” Kingsbury told analysts in June.

“We are currently working to re-establish our presence, which will include expanding our in-store assortment and improving the in-store positioning by placing it near Sephora."

Expanding options for dresses, women's business

Kohl's is "putting the women's business under the microscope" and one of the first things the company has done is expand options for dresses.

Kohl’s has added space for dresses in the front of 700 stores, and included new brands like London Times, Harper Rose, Taylor, Maison Tara, Nanette Lepore, Nicole Miller, Andrew Marc, Betsy & Adam.

So far, that move has been positive, compared with sales at stores that haven’t made that change.

“If they have dresses, they’re performing better,” Kingsbury said. “We’re expanding to all stores based on our current performance overall.”

More promotions in final months of the year

The fall and holiday season are typically the busiest and most profitable times of the year for Kohl's.

“But we think it’s going to be even more promotional just based on what we’re currently experiencing right now,” Kingsbury said. “The middle income customer, they’re really stressed in terms of what they’re dealing with right now.”

Partnership with Babies 'R' Us is early but showing positive signs

With its partnership with Babies ‘R’ Us , Kohl’s is hoping to duplicate some of the success it saw with Sephora.

However there’s roughly 100 stores with a Babies ‘R’ Us and Kohl’s expect that number to grow to 200 stores by the end of the year.

“It’s early,” Kingsbury told analysts.

The company hopes the partnership will draw younger customers.

When it comes to Babies ‘R’ Us, Kingsbury said the top category has been “baby gear,” things like strollers and car seats. The second highest selling category has been furniture.

“If it was a different category like feeding or gifts we wouldn’t be as excited about it,” Kingsbury said of the early results.

To follow up it’s move with Babies ‘R’ Us, Kohl’s introduced the maternity brand “Motherhood,”  and is planning to launch an online registry in October.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Kohl's shoppers will notice changes as retailer tries to boost sales. Here are 5 store updates.