Many fashion retails are reopening with Kohl’s becoming the latest major retailer to reopen stores this week, with four stores opening on May 4 and 10 more opening on May 11, all with additional safety precautions. One such precaution: The fitting rooms will be closed.
“We are taking an informed, measured approach based on a number of factors to reopen our stores on a phased timeline, with about 25% of our stores opening by next week. The occupancy you can have in a store is a lot lower than before,” said de Jong. “We are lucky because our stores are pretty big, but it’s still a reduced capacity. Something we’ve been doing is offering co-browsing, where customers can video chat with sales associates before they come in and pick out clothes they want to try, and we can get the clothes prepared so they’re ready when the customer comes in. Our business is high-touch so we’re looking for any ways to make it safer and easier, and to minimize contact.”
“Online has never been a big part of our business, only around 30%, and it did not shoot up when our stores closed,” de Jong said. “So we needed our stores open and, from what I’ve seen in the places where our stores are reopened, people want to come in and shop. They want a return to normalcy. We just have to do it in a safe way.”
