“The Greatness Agenda is our multi-year plan and it’s working. Since announcing this strategy one year ago, we’ve changed the trajectory of our performance trend line from negative to positive,” stated Kevin Mansell, Kohl’s chairman, CEO and president, adding: “The key business initiatives outlined in the Greatness Agenda one year ago have delivered, or in most cases over delivered, to our plan. With one year of key wins and further customer insights under our belts, we are on course to meet our three-year goals and become the most engaging retailer in America.”

According to the company, the strategy is supported by the five pillars it is built upon: amazing product, incredible savings, easy experience, personalized connections and winning teams. To measure success in the near-term, Kohl’s set out to reach three primary goals by the end of 2017: to increase sales to 21 billion US dollars be in the 90th percentile for associate engagement and best-in-class for customer engagement.

In the first year of the Greatness Agenda, Kohl’s saw immediate success in its newly launched Yes2You Rewards loyalty program – now more than 33 million members strong, the rollout of an expanded and elevated beauty department, introduction of truly personalized marketing efforts, launch of a highly-ranked new mobile app, double digit year-to-date growth and significant market share gain in the active and wellness business, and the launch of several key national brands, including FitBit, Madden Girl, Columbia, Samsung, Bliss and more.

As part of its strategic agenda Kohl’s announced the aim to intensify the focus on the women’s apparel business, launch new formats and distribution channels to increase sale, drive traffic in stores through buy online, pick-up in stores, accelerate personalization and to open in 2016 five to 10 small-format stores measuring 35 000 square feet.

“We are in a strong position to explore new formats as an additional avenue for growth and diversification. We have created a smaller, more nimble 35 000 square foot Kohl’s prototype and will open five to ten of these Kohl’s stores in underserved markets next year”, Mr. Mansell said, adding, “We have also leveraged the strength of our exclusive brands to create completely new retail outlet locations solely selling our proprietary brands, starting with FILA. Next year, we will open 10 to 15 FILA stores in outlet malls across the country. Additionally, after seeing the potential from our first Off-Aisle by Kohl’s pilot store opened last year, we will open two more Off-Aisle by Kohl’s locations in 2016. All three of these new formats create new revenue streams and growth for Kohl’s.”