Stores fulfilled 30% of Kohl’s online orders in Q3 through in-store pickup and ship from store.

Kohl’s Corp. stores continue to play an important role in fulfilling online orders, as e-commerce continues to outpace the retailer’s in-store sales.

Online sales grew 15% year over year during the quarter, CEO Kevin Mansell told analysts Thursday on the retail chain’s Q3 2017 earnings call. Kohl’s does not release a dollar figure for e-commerce.

Stormy weather hurt results in the middle of the quarter ended Sept. 30, when hurricanes ravaged parts of Florida and Texas. But sales began to pick up again at the end of the period, Mansell said, and same-store sales broke even.

Stores continue to play a key role for Kohl’s, fulfilling 30% of the retailer’s online orders.

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“The impact of ship from store and buy online, pick up in store during in the fourth quarter is, as you can imagine, very high,” he saidl, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha. “In particular, the impact of buy online, pick up in the store as we get closer to the holiday season accelerates really dramatically. The changes that we’ve made and initiative we have put in place to drive customers to consider picking up in store, I think will pay us big dividends in the fourth quarter.”

Mansell talked little about Kohl’s relationship with Amazon.com Inc.

Kohl’s, No. 18 in the Internet Retailer 2017 Top 500, last month began a multifaceted partnership with Amazon (No. 1). Kohl’s has opened Amazon return centers in 82 stores in the Chicago and Los Angeles areas, complete with Amazon branding in Kohl’s stores.

Kohl’s has also opened 1,000-square-foot Amazon areas in 10 locations in those same two markets to sell Amazon devices, including the Fire tablet and Echo voice-activated speakers. Mansell declined to detail any results Kohl’s has seen so far from the Amazon centers.

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“We have a very simple, straightforward objective here,” he said. “Driving traffic is a No. 1 priority. Initiatives that might help us drive traffic and allow customers to consider Kohl’s as a stop instead of somewhere else—we’re going to consider [those]. And we think [Kohl’s and Amazon] are two companies that share a lot of common traits in terms of their pursuit of excellence.”

For the third quarter ended October 28, Kohl’s reported:

  • Net sales of $4.332 billion, up 0.1% from $4.327 billion during the same time last year.
  • A year over year comparable sales gain, including e-commerce, of 0.1%, compared to a 1.7% decline.
  • Net income of $117 million compared with $146 million.

For the first nine months of 2017, Kohl’s reported:

  • Net sales of $12.319 billion, down 1.3% from $12.481 billion during the same time last year.
  • A year-over-year comparable sales decline of 1.0%, compared with a 2.4% decline.
  • Net income of $391 million compared with $303 million.
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