Kohl’s vs JCPenney

Kohl’s was not always the high-flying retailer it is now. At one time, they did not have designers such as Vera Wang, and Lauren Conrad designing clothes for them. They were flying under the radar with their clever marketing tools such as Kohl’s cash and their sales strategy.
At first, if a customer spent $50 in the store, then they would receive $5 Kohl’s cash. Kohl’s slowly increased that to $10 for $50 you spend, and then in the 2010 holiday season for a few days they were offering $15 Kohl’s cash for every $50 you spend to attract more customers during the tough economic recession.

JCPenney saw how successful Kohl’s cash was and they responded by introducing JCP cash similar to Kohl’s cash except it comes in a different increments.

You can print your JCP cash online and they take it the store. For example, if you spend $100 or more you can save $20 bucks. If you spend $75 or more you can save $15, and if you spend $50 or more you can save $10. The key difference is Kohl’s cash is earned while you shop, you cannot print out Kohl’s cash prior to shopping. JCPenney allows their customers to print their JCP cash online and take it to the store to use prior to shopping.

JCPenney has also adopted Kohl’s sales strategy. Kohl’s is known for having a “Night Owl” sale on Friday normally from 3PM-11PM, and then an “Early Bird” on Saturday normally from 7AM-1 PM. JCPenney has picked up on this, and calls their sale “Doorbusters”. Their Friday Doorbuster goes from 3PM-close, and then on Saturday from 9AM-1PM.