4 Ways J.C. Penney Delivers a Compelling Shopping Experience

3. Strong executive support. Kelley stressed the importance of Penney's integrated business units. “You can't work in silos,” he said, noting that planning and allocation, merchandising, marketing, supply chain, and other segments continually work together to optimize inventory levels.

Senior management is involved in supporting all segments of the business. An example of the company's increased focus on employees is J.C. Penney University, its own in-house training program.

4. Offer more choices. “We want to be able to offer the right product at the right time at the right size at the right place at the right price,” Kelley said. J.C. Penney makes the most of all shopping channels; in fact, it recently upgraded its Web site.

And in many cases the selection comes down to the size. “Sizes are a very important part of the emotional connection with the customer,” Kelley said. To optimize the choices at the retail level, J.C. Penney constantly shifts its inventory deployment, often due to factors such as size and color of apparel, deploying more resources where sales are occurring and pulling back from where they're not.