Michelle Gass, CEO of Kohl
Source: Kohl’s
Michelle Gass, executive president of Kohl, said there is plenty of room for the retailer and Amazon to operate brick-and-mortar stores, even though the two are already working together through Kohl’s locations.
“Retail is huge and there’s a lot of market,” Gass told CNBC’s Courtney Reagan on Tuesday afternoon, during a live CNBC Evolve event. “We always have to raise the bar.”
Gass’s comments come after a report in The Wall Street Journal said Amazon plans to open department stores that look like department stores, marking the e-commerce giant’s latest experiment with brick-and-mortar retailers. mortar. The stores are expected to look the size of a TJ Maxx and have both clothing and technology products, according to the newspaper. When CNBC asked him at the time of the report, Amazon declined to comment.
Shares of Target, Walmart and Best Buy fell on the news, as investors worried that Amazon’s 30,000-square-foot department stores would face these big retailers in malls.
Kohl’s stores are also largely found in such malls. But the department store chain has a unique relationship with Amazon. Kohl’s accepts Amazon’s return to its nearly 1,200 locations. According to Gass, that relationship would not change if Amazon pursues this adventure.
Kohl’s has accredited the Amazon partnership to help drive walking traffic to its stores. Once there, a customer who returns an Amazon item may end up buying something else at Kohl’s. In March, Gass said the relationship helped Kohl add 2 million new customers last year.
“Amazon … they’re always experimenting. They’re innovating,” Gass said Tuesday. “And so we’ll see, but I don’t think our partnership will change. And we’ve been frankly competing with them before for their online business.”
Kohl’s shares rose about 3% when trading on Tuesday afternoon. So far, shares have risen 47%, raising its market capitalization to $ 9.355 billion.