Kohl’s to start selling Lands’ End merchandise
Wisconsin-based retailers Kohl’s and Lands’ End are partnering together in a pairing like khaki pants and polo shirts.
Starting this fall, Kohl’s shoppers will be able to buy Lands’ End casual wear online and at select stores.
Kohl’s will offer Lands’ End’s entire women’s, men’s, kids and home merchandise on its website. Orders will be fulfilled and shipped by Lands’ End.
Also in fall, Kohl’s will start selling Lands’ End seasonal goods, like fall and winter outerwear, at 150 of its stores. Some stores will be a Lands’ End store-within-a-store. The in-store selection will switch to swimwear in early 2021.
This new partnership was to have been announced Monday at Kohl’s investor day in New York City, but the event was canceled because of concerns about the coronavirus outbreak. The event will be rescheduled.
It seems like a natural fit for the two family-focused, practical Wisconsin companies with headquarters just more than 100 miles apart. Kohl’s headquarters is in Menomonee Falls, while Lands’ End is based in Dodgeville, west of Madison.
“It’s a hand and glove relationship,” said Doug Howe, Kohl’s chief merchandising officer. The deal came together within the last few months as Lands’ End ended its partnership with declining department store Sears.
Lands’ End sells its products on its own website and Amazon and through retail locations. The brand had been operating departments in Sears stores — the last of those leases expired in January. Lands’ End CEO Jerome Griffith said he believes this partnership brings more benefits to the company than selling through Sears. Lands’ End operates 26 of its own stores across the country.
After a short but failed experiment with more stylish women’s clothing, Lands’ End has gone back to its classic aesthetic. While it was long known as a catalog company, Lands’ End is now e-commerce focused.
Griffith took over in March 2017. Sales have improved, even as those stores inside Sears closed. Lands’ End will announce its fourth quarter and fiscal 2019 earnings Tuesday.
Lands’ End thinks selling through Kohl’s online and retail stores will have a similar effect as when it started selling on Amazon — new customers.
The company started listing its line on the online superstore in early 2018. Lands’ End found that more than half those customers were new to the retailer. The hope is it will see a similar result again with Kohl’s.
“We find that we share a pretty similar demographic with our customers,” Griffith said. “Our customers say that they do a lot of shopping at Kohl’s. It gives us the opportunity to be in front of a much larger audience.
“If it works, we’ll be happy to expand,” he said. Kohl’s has made a commitment to revitalize its struggling women’s business. It is also pushing to connect with millennial buyers. Lands’ End sportswear and school uniforms fit into both these goals, Howe said.
Kohl’s ended 2019 with flat sales in the fourth quarter and again emphasized how it needed to rethink its weak women’s sales.
“The addition of Lands’ End, a market leader in the classic, casual lifestyle, into Kohl’s brand portfolio further strengthens our product leadership and our ability to deliver unmatched national brands to Kohl’s customers,” said Michelle Gass, Kohl’s chief executive officer in a news release.
“Lands’ End brings its strong brand recognition, leadership in casual style and fit authority, and gives new and existing customers something to discover at Kohl’s.”
While Kohl’s is adding Lands’ End, it is cutting ties with eight women’s brands over the course of 2020, Gass said in the fourth-quarter conference call.
Kohl’s planned to announce which brands would be gone at the investor day March 16. Those announcements are postponed.