School just ended for the summer, but J.C. Penney is already preparing for first-year college students, especially those early shoppers.
The retailer opened its new dorm shops in 500 J.C. Penney stores the week of June 5, including in Hanes Mall where the dorm shop is in a central location next door to the store’s appliances department.
She added that while the retailer’s primary target is recent high-school graduates headed to college, the dorm shops are for all college students.
The 400-square-foot shops feature bedding, bath and décor products. They offer mini refrigerators, microwaves, portable air conditioning units and expanded storage solutions. Other items include furniture such as tables and chairs and a large assortment of backpacks, Packard Bell laptops will soon be added.
J.C. Penney has created a checklist for shoppers, listing all dorm essentials in one place, including XL twin sheets, dorm-appropriate cookware, mattress toppers, bath towels, clothes hangers, desk lamps and alarm clocks.
Before the dorm rooms, the J.C. Penney at Hanes Mall had just dorm basics such as backpacks and extra-long twin sheets, but it did not have a centralized dorm location.
Based on a 2016 back-to-school survey by the National Retail Federation, J.C. Penney estimates that parents and students will spend more than $6 billion on dorm furnishings this summer.
“J.C. Penney is focused on driving performance and capturing a significant share of this business by expanding the breadth of our dorm offerings to include new categories, such as microwaves and compact refrigerators, conveniently available in stores and online,” said John Tighe, J.C. Penney’s executive vice president and chief merchant.
If shoppers can’t find what they want in the store, an expanded selection of dorm products are available online at jcpenney.com, where customers have the option of shipping online orders directly to a J.C. Penney store close to their college campus.
J.C. Penney has also expanded its same-day store pickup program to all stores.
“We have the benefit of leveraging our store fleet to deliver JCPenney.com orders quickly, efficiently and at a low cost to the customer, representing an opportunity to drive additional sales,” Tighe said. “These factors become especially important as new college students realize they need more towels, forget their pillow at home or want to purchase a portable A/C unit for their dorm room.”
Lewis-Wilson said that free shipping is offered on orders of $25.
Delivery is also available. The prices depend on how fast a customer needs the merchandise.
Lewis-Wilson said that people — students and parents — are already coming into the local store and many are shopping online for dorm merchandise.
“We do a lot of same-day pickup and a lot of online orders in general,” she said. “So we’re very busy.”
Lewis-Wilson said she has found that a lot of people are shopping for dorm items later than in the past.
“With our larger assortment, now we can accommodate those late shoppers,” she said.
