Kohl's (NYSE: KSS) is laying off 250 of its employees as part of the retailer's restructuring efforts. While Kohl's won't be closing any stores at this time, these changes will impact office workers in New York, California, and the Kohl's headquarters location of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.
"This reorganization in our business will empower decision-making, reduce management layers, streamline communications and drive greater efficiency in many areas of our business," said Jen Johnson, Senior Vice President of Communications at Kohl's. "The departures include removing a layer of regional store leadership roles and positions, restructuring teams in our merchant organization and changes to other positions in our corporate offices," said Johnson. "The organizational changes we've made are driven by the evolution of our strategic business priorities to create a more agile and empowered organization to support our long-term sustainable growth."
This move by Kohl's doesn't come as a complete surprise. For one, competition with the online retail space, particularly e-commerce giant Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), has been making sales difficult for many predominantly brick-and-mortar and shopping mall brands. In November and December 2019, Kohl's holiday sales were down 0.2% compared to the previous year. Recent previous holiday seasons didn't produce strong sales either. Kohl's competitors Macy's (NYSE: M) and JCPenney (NYSE: JCP) have also seen declining sales and subsequent layoffs, as well as store closings. Not too long ago, Macy's announced it will close 125 stores and lay off 2,000 corporate employees.
Further, some e-commerce retailers have been restructuring and cutting jobs too. Walmart's (NYSE: WMT) Hayneedle and Allswell have both seen significant layoffs lately. During 2019, Walmart actually saw $2 billion in e-commerce losses. The online-only retailer Wayfair (NYSE: W), which hasn't seen profit since going public, recently announced it will lay off 550 workers.
At this point, Kohl's will need to continue to innovate, work with digital trends, and markedly differentiate itself from other department store brands in order to stay afloat and get ahead.
With more than 1,100 stores in 49 U.S. states and roughly 130,000 total employees, Kohl's has a current market capitalization of $3.88 billion.