Furthering turnaround efforts, JCPenney plans to pump greater than $1 billion into its business by fiscal 12 months 2025 to enhance stores, the web site, customer experiences and operational efficiencies.

On Thursday, the corporate said the investment is self-funded through its own operations and that it builds on “significant progress” last 12 months with the launch of JCPenney Beauty, product collaborations, store refreshes and improved digital shopping.

“JCPenney is on strong financial footing and is steadily increasing relevance and frequency with our core customers,” Marc Rosen, chief executive officer of JCPenney, said in an announcement. “We’re poised for continued growth and know that the surest path to success is by specializing in our customers. That’s why we’re wholly committed to serving hardworking families across America with the eye, value, quality, selection and experience they deserve.”

Penney’s has endured three a long time of declining performance, lately marked by management changes, strategy shifts and reversals, and meddling by shareholder activists and personal equity owners. The retailer went bankrupt in May 2020 after getting clobbered by the pandemic and being forced to temporarily close stores.

However the Dallas-based retailer was lifted out of bankruptcy by two major mall owners and its latest owners, the Simon Property Group Inc. and Brookfield Property Partners LP, thereby reducing its debt from around $5 billion to about $500 million.

Though many retail experts regard Penney’s as a dinosaur on the retail landscape, for Simon and Brookfield, it’s still essential to the health of their shopping centers. Penney’s merchandising primarily appeals to working- and middle-class families, those segments of American society which have been most hurt by inflation and better rates of interest and struggling to make ends meet.

On Thursday, Penney’s spelled out how the $1 billion can be spent, citing investments in improving digital capabilities and looking for to make the net experience more seamless and more personalized with upgrades to the web site and the mobile app, including improved search functionality and product details, customer product reviews and more customized product and styling recommendations.

Investments may also be made in upgrading the stores. Upgrades are within the works on several of the retailer’s 650 stores, including improved technology and associate tools and physical improvements to assist the stores look higher. A latest point-of-sale system that higher integrates with inventory and upgrades to in-store Wi-Fi networks for faster and more reliable connections for purchasers and associates are also within the works. To date, greater than 100 stores have been refreshed.

Penney’s further indicated that it’s upgrading merchandising tools and provide chain operations “so customers can shop the appropriate products at the appropriate place and at the appropriate price. Latest inventory management systems, amongst other tools, will enable greater accuracy in decision-making and efficiency in execution, allowing JCPenney to cater to customers’ unique needs, fulfill orders faster and reduce purchase delivery times.”

Enhanced tools may also scale Penney’s ability to offer customized and localized product assortments to raised meet local people preferences and trends.

Last spring, Rosen laid out Penney’s evolving game plan during an interview with WWD. A giant a part of it looked as if it would center on efforts to capture more customers within the 20- to 40-year-old demographic through a battery of latest strategies. At the identical time, Penney’s must maintain its older, traditional base and working-class family appeal.

Among the many strategies he cited was the rollout of JCP Beauty departments with its inclusive mixture of masstige, prestige and mass brands from latest, emerging and established corporations, to all 660-plus stores following Sephora’s defection to Kohl’s, a direct competitor.

Rosen also underscored that Penney’s is pursuing additional collaborations with designers and celebrities, and has been advancing its private-label programs by reducing redundancies and sharpening what each existing label stands for, while adding latest ones. It’s an effort to solid a more modern, fashionable image and supply greater exclusivity. Growing digital sales, which represent about 30 percent of Penney’s total volume, and securing a much bigger area of interest in dress-up categories resembling dresses and men’s suits, where the private-brand program and collaboration play an enormous part, are a part of the agenda.

Penney’s can be creating centralized point-of-sale checkouts to switch checkouts placed in several areas of the shop, and is equipping associates with devices for mobile checkouts and quick access to information on product availability. It’s about providing speed of checkout, convenience and higher service.

In one other maneuver revealed Thursday, Penney’s has put together a “reinvigorated customer strategy and brand proposition,” called “Make it Count.” It involves emphasizing fashion, beauty and accessories offerings with value, accessible prices and inclusive sizing. Most recently, Penney unveiled its partnership with celebrity stylist Jason Bolden to reimagine collections for 2 private labels — J.Ferrar and Worthington — made for each size, shape and body. Make It Count also promotes the advantages of Penney’s bank card and loyalty programs, localized assortments, and community involvements and philanthropy.

“Too often, we’re forced to make compromises between money and time, quality and price, responsibilities and having fun with life’s moments,” Katie Mullen, Penney’s chief customer officer, said in an announcement. “We wish to indicate customers that we’re in it with them, just as we’ve been throughout our history, and investing in helping them benefit from their moments.”

Make it Count will feature vignettes “telling customers’ stories of non-public, emotional and transformational moments of their every day lives, and reinforcing how JCPenney products are part of those wonderful memories,” the corporate indicated.