Kohl’s kicks off holiday shopping with October deals event

Dive Brief:

• Joining other major retailers’ fall sales events, Kohl’s is kicking off its holiday shopping deals in October during its “3 Days of Deals” event. Savings will be on thousands of products across home, gifting, fall apparel, footwear, accessories, baby products and other categories, the company announced Friday. 
• From Oct. 7 to Oct. 9, the retailer is offering 25% discounts on select purchases with a coupon. Kohl’s will offer discounts on products from brands like Adidas, Nike and Levi’s. 
• The company said it is also offering Kohl’s Rewards members free shipping and triple rewards on nearly everything, including Sephora at Kohl’s purchases.

Dive Insight:

Alongside other major retailers, Kohl’s is rolling out its holiday deals well ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. While Amazon is planning its fall Prime Big Deal Days event for Oct. 8 and Oct. 9, Walmart and Lowe’s also unveiled sales events in October. 

In July, Kohl’s made a similar move with its Summer Cyber Deals, which offered shoppers discounts on home goods, apparel and outdoor toys. That same month, Amazon also held its Prime Day sales event with savings for Prime subscribers, and Target, Walmart and Best Buy followed suit with promotional events.

As Kohl’s promotes its Sephora shop-in-shop offerings, that partnership has driven growth for the company amid its ongoing sales declines. In its second quarter earnings report, the department store reported a 4.2% dip in net sales from last year, and a 5.1 decline in comparable sales. During an earnings call regarding the quarter, CEO Tom Kingsbury noted that 35% of Sephora at Kohl’s shoppers also buy other Kohl’s products, primarily women’s, juniors and accessories. 

Beyond offering customers discounts ahead of the holidays, Kohl’s is reaching out to families with a new brand platform dubbed “Where Families Come First.” The company will release its first campaign “When Life Gets Real, Start Here,” this fall, where it will use realistic family situations to showcase the retailer’s products.