With the aim of bringing more people into its stores, Kohl’s plans to start taking returns for Amazon purchases at all of its locations. The retailer’s stock jumped almost 10 percent with the news, CNBC reported.
Kohl’s Chief Executive Officer Michelle Gass said in an announcement, “We are thrilled to bring Amazon Returns at Kohl’s to all of our stores across the country.” Gass continued, “Amazon and Kohl’s have a shared passion in providing outstanding customer service, and this unique partnership combines Kohl’s strong nationwide store footprint and omnichannel capabilities with Amazon’s reach and customer loyalty. This new service is another example of how Kohl’s is delivering innovation to drive traffic to our stores and bring more relevance to our customers.”
Through the offering, the department store retailer will take Amazon items that are “eligible” without a label or a box. (That reportedly comes without an additional fee on the part of the shopper.) The retailer then packages the purchases before sending them to a return center of the eCommerce retailer. While the option is reportedly only at 100 of the retailer’s stores today, it is said to come to all Kohl’s stores in July.
The news comes as Kohl’s has announced that it will lease or sell retail space at 10 locations to Planet Fitness. The gyms would be between 20,000 square feet and 25,000 square feet. And it was reported that the fitness facility wouldn’t share doors with Kohl’s, but the companies will promote each other. As it stands, the merchant has been at work on how to best use its spaces such as right-sizing its retail footprint.
The company, for instance, revealed last year that Aldi would be its first partner to sublet space in downsized stores. Neil Saunders, managing director of market research firm GlobalData Retail, said at the time, “This kind of thinking … shows that Kohl’s understands the need to give customers reasons to visit stores and is not afraid to experiment to achieve this.”