About Jill Timm
Jill Timm, Chief Financial Officer at Kohl's, has been referenced in public statements by the company's CEO regarding the retailer's performance and strategy. In September 2019, the CEO stated that "all our indicators are that it's going to be a strong holiday season" and highlighted the importance of omni-channel retail, noting that "omni-channel is very big for us now in terms of how our stores and our digital channels work together." The CEO also discussed the company's pilot partnership with Amazon, which at that time was in 100 stores across Chicago, Los Angeles, and Wisconsin, describing it as a test to ensure the partnership "needs to work for both of us" and noting that customers appreciated the free return service.
In September 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the CEO addressed store reopenings, emphasizing that "the health and safety of our associates and our customers remains our top priority." The company implemented measures including health and safety training, wellness checks, masks and gloves for associates, reduced hours, dedicated shopping times for high-risk customers, hand sanitizer stations, social distancing markers, protective barriers, and enhanced cleaning procedures. The CEO stated that the company was "taking a thoughtful and measured approach when deciding which stores to open" based on state guidelines, health data, store readiness, and team insights.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Jill Timm's recent appearances.
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Transcript (10 segments)
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Courtney Reagan0:00
And I couldn't be more excited about what's ahead for Kohl's. As you mentioned, I was part of the leadership team working with Kevin Mansell and the rest of the team as we charted the course forward: our greatness agenda, our key priorities of driving traffic and operating with excellence. And all those maintain, but just as we have the last couple years evolved, we are evolving as we speak. I'd say our big focus is, while we maintain the discipline of operating a great business, driving more innovation, more excitement. And you mentioned, you know, both for us it's the core customer and it's that millennial shopper. And we have an entire team that's really energized about that opportunity. A great example is the new line of apparel we just introduced in September, a partnership with PopSugar, and it is aimed squarely at that millennial customer.
In your presentation here, you said PopSugar reaches one of every two female millennial shoppers, so that's a pretty big deal.
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Jill Timm0:52
Yeah, they do. They have over 35 million followers. And we had done some work with them prior, and with our advertising, so we knew that we would be resonating with that customer. And we're really excited about the early days of how that new line is doing for us.
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Courtney Reagan1:08
Kohl's has had some good sales momentum, positive comps for four quarters in a row. But here you go, it's holiday season. So how are you going to continue that momentum? What's your holiday plan to really stand out in a sector, in the department store sector, that has been critiqued a bit over the years?
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Jill Timm1:25
Well first off, I'm excited that we do enter into the holiday season with such great momentum, as you just said. And the holiday season for Kohl's is where we really shine. I mean, we're so known for Black Friday and now Cyber Monday, Cyber Week. And a lot of the things that we look ahead for holiday are things that are working for us right now. Our active business is doing phenomenally well. And yes, people do buy active as gifts for themselves during the holiday time. We have a great lineup of private and exclusive brands. And you know, there are new categories for us like toys: we just introduced the Lego brand and FAO Schwarz. So as those opportunities present themselves, we're excited to capture even more market share.
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Courtney Reagan2:06
There's been a lot of talk about the health of the consumer. We've seen some stock market volatility, of course there's some turmoil in Washington, and some tussles over policy, rising interest rates. What do you think about the health of the US consumer? Is any of that going to impact how they spend this holiday season?
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Jill Timm2:23
All our indicators, Courtney, is that it's going to be a strong holiday season. And certainly there's been a benefit over the last year from the backdrop of the macro environment. But also, as we look into holiday, I go back to the things that Kohl's can control: creating a great experience for a customer. You know, omni-channel is very big for us now in terms of how our stores and our digital channels work together, what we have to offer in terms of value. So our customers come and they love Kohl's Cash, and then of course the great product that we're going to offer them this holiday season.
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Courtney Reagan2:56
Speaking of stores and digital, that Amazon partnership you talked about a little here. You're still in the pilot stages, but it's been about a year, so you have to have some learnings. Is it bringing in traffic, and is that traffic converting into sales for Kohl's?
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Jill Timm3:07
Well, one thing about Kohl's, and one thing that I respect since I've walked in the door, is that we're really good at testing. And we want to make sure that if we're going to do something for the long run, that we really understand it. So in partnership with Amazon, we're now in a hundred stores across three markets: that's Chicago, LA, and most recently we expanded to Wisconsin. We're really studying to make sure that we can create a great customer experience. And so it takes time to ensure that we can deliver on that experience, and that ultimately the partnership needs to work for both of us. But if you think about what we've created, the whole idea of accepting returns from another retailer—and Amazon—nobody had ever done anything like that. And the fact that for a customer, all they need to do is bring it in, they don't have to package it, we'll package it, we'll ship it back, it's all free. So one thing I know for sure is that the customer really does love it. I've spoken to many of them myself. So the Amazon customers, the Kohl's customers—now we just have to see if the whole thing will work for us long term.
