E-commerce provided encouraging returns for retail chain J.C. Penney Inc. in Q1 2015, and the retailer says it will expand its offerings to capitalize on that momentum.

The Internet Retailer Excellence Awards Comeback of the Year finalist, says it will offer same-day, in-store pickup for online orders in select markets later this year, with the goal of offering it at all of its locations next year.

“When you can provide online same-day pickup, those stores become more valuable assets to the customer as we think about in-progress inventory and fulfilling out of stores,” president Marvin Ellison, who will take over as CEO of the company in August, told analysts on the retailer’s Q1 2015 earnings call, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha. Part of that is because 20% of all shoppers who buy online and then pick up in a store spend more money at the retail location when they pick up their orders.

“It is important to note that an omnichannel customer shops 2.5 times more frequently in a year than a traditional brick-and-mortar customer,” Ellison said. “So it is essential that we continue to convert store-only customers to omnichannel.”

J.C. Penney, No. 37 in the Internet Retailer 2015 Top 500 Guide, does not break out its online sales in its quarterly reports. However, the retailer disclosed that it undertook a number of initiatives during the quarter to convert online customers. Ellison said the retailer expanded the number of stores used to fulfill online orders by 160 and has designs on adding more throughout the year. The retailer, which will launch an Android version of its mobile app this month, also improved search capabilities on its website and expanded its online product assortment during the quarter, something Ellison said customers can expect to continue in the near future.

“We’re also very excited to announce that we are launching J.C. Penney’s own Sephora e-commerce business on jcp.com later this month,” he said. “This is a very exciting expansion of our partnership.” Sephora operates cosmetics stores in over 485 J.C. Penney stores.

For the three months ending May 2, J.C. Penney reported:

• Net sales of $2.857 billion, up 2.0% from $2.801 billion during the same period last year.
• A comparable-store sales gain of 3.4% compared with 7.4% during the same period last year.
• Net loss of $167 million compared with a loss of $352 million in the year-ago period.

The Comeback of the Year award is one of 10 Internet Retailer Excellence Awards that will be presented June 3 at a banquet that coincides with the 2015 IRCE conference in Chicago.

Favorite