J.C. Penney Rebounding with the Web

According to a recent BusinessWeek article entitled J.C. Penney Gets the Net, Robert Berner profiles an age-old brand dominating the hottest trend in reaching customers.

In reading this piece I was stunned to learn that JCP consistenly ranks in the top 5 in terms of the number of paying customers it attracts. According to the article,

In the first quarter, jcp.com drew 926,000 such shoppers, which put in the company of ebay, Amazon, Tickemaster and Bertelsmann’s online music business.

Some interesting facts:

1. JCP sells a wider variety of goods online; nearly 3x the number of products available in its 1,000 stores;
2. In August, Penney became one of the few retailers to make Internet access available at its 35,000 checkout registers;
3. It was one of the first to allow online shoppers to pick up and return orders at stores;
4. Now, customers can check which clothes are in stock at local stores, too, a feature that no other major apparel retailer offers;
5. Sales accounted for 6% of Penney’s $20 billion in total sales in 2006 comapred to 4% for Sears and less than 1% at Wal-Mart.

So What? I don’t know about you, but despite the hipper commercials, I thought that J.C. Penney was on hard times since the 90’s. Clearly, someone who gets fashion and the web is running the place.

Tags: J.C. Penney, Retailing, Online, Sears, Amazon, eBay, Tickemaster, Wal-Mart, BMG

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