Kohl’s Corp. said it achieved top- and bottom-line performance ahead of its expectations in its fiscal Q3, as ecommerce sales mitigated a decline in revenue.
In its fiscal Q3, Kohl’s reported a 2.8% year-over-year decrease in net sales while comparable sales declined 1.7%. Kohl’s net sales in Q3 2025 reached about $3.41 billion, down from about $3.51 billion the prior year.
For the first nine months of its fiscal year, Kohl’s sales totaled $9.80 billion. That’s about 4.2% less than the same time frame last year — $10.21 billion.
Newly appointed permanent CEO Michael Bender told investors on Kohl’s Q3 earnings call that September was slow for the retailer. However, October was the strongest month of the quarter for Kohl’s. Comparable sales increased 1% as Kohl’s ecommerce sales grew 2% year over year in October, he said.
Kohl’s is No. 25 in the Top 2000. The database ranks North America’s largest online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales and more. Digital Commerce 360 projects Kohl’s ecommerce sales to decline 17.7% year over year in 2025.
How Kohl’s plans to turn sales around
Bender outlined three priorities Kohl’s has been working toward in 2025:
- Offering a curated, more balanced assortment that fulfills customers’ needs.
- “Reestablishing Kohl’s as a leader in value and quality.”
- Delivering an improved, omnichannel shopping experience across platforms.
“We’re focused on creating an elevated, more consistent experience across our store fleet and on our digital platforms,” Bender said.
Part of that comes from updating its store layout. But on the digital side, that also comes from applying artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to workflows, Bender said. Additionally, Kohl’s has invested in expanding one of its “next-generation ecommerce fulfillment centers” this year, according to chief financial officer Jill Timm.
In July, Kohl’s had named Arianne Parisi its new chief digital officer, tasking her with driving ecommerce sales through Kohls.com and the retailer’s mobile app. And in August, it named Steven Dee its chief technology officer, “responsible for overseeing all technology and information platforms supporting Kohl’s omnichannel business,” the retailer said in a statement at the time.
Kohl’s ecommerce sales in Q3
In Q3, Kohl’s ecommerce sales “outperformed stores again,” according to Timm. They increased 2.4% year over year.
Timm attributed Kohl’s ecommerce sales growth in Q3 to an increase in traffic throughout the quarter. Traffic during the period increased from high single digits in August to high teens in October, she said. That stemmed, in part, from an increase in transactions among Kohl’s card customers.
Bender added that Kohl’s has seen a positive impact from including more brands to become coupon-eligible, including about 50 that are digitally native. He also said AI is helping to improve efficiency while elevating the customer experience.
“AI is helping our engineers work faster to complete site updates and enhance our app performance,” Bender said. “In marketing, predictive AI is guiding media investments and personalizing offers and generative tools are helping creative teams produce content faster.”
He said that although Kohl’s is still developing some of its technological initiatives, it has already seen an improvement in customer engagement. The retailer is “taking a disciplined approach to scaling these capabilities,” he added.
Timm said she expects ecommerce sales to represent a larger portion of Kohl’s business in its fiscal Q4. As a result, she said, the retailer will have added pressure from shipping costs.
“We also expect it is a highly promotional time,” Timm said. “We know that we have a low- and middle-income customer that are going to be more choiceful and they’re really seeking value, so we wanted to be set up so we could have that ability to really lean into value and our promotions during that time of year.”
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