Kohl's to Sell Fanatics’ Licensed Sports Gear Online

Kohl’s announced that it has signed a long-term deal with Fanatics to sell the sports retailer's licensed gear exclusively on Kohls.com, starting this fall. Fanatics had already been a wholesale partner of Kohl’s. The new deal, however, will enable Kohl's online shoppers access to hundreds of thousands of items across team apparel, jerseys and additional merchandise for men, women and kids.

While the expanded product assortment will be available directly through Kohls.com, Fanatics will handle the order fulfillment from its distribution centers. Kohl’s will handle the rest, like customer service and promotions. What's more, while Walmart announced its own deal to sell Fanatics’ merchandise on Walmart.com in January, this deal is different as Fanatics has its own “store within a store” on Walmart’s website, and it handles marketing and work on the back end. On Kohls.com, Fanactics’ merchandise will be mixed in with Kohl’s existing “Sports Fan” page.

Total Retail's Take: Kohl’s has been in the news a lot lately, the result of several interesting and in some cases market-moving announcements designed to grow its customer base. For example, just last month the department store chain announced that it will accept Amazon.com returns in all of its stores beginning in July. The partnership, which was tested in pilot stores before being rolled out to Kohl's entire network of stores, has proven successful at driving additional foot traffic into stores.

And just last week, it was reported that Kohl's has approached At Home Group regarding interest in acquiring the U.S. home decor retail chain. A deal would help Kohl's expand its customer base and boost its presence in the home goods category, which has traditionally accounted for a small part of its business.

“We're continually seeking opportunities to evolve our product offerings in order to give our customers even more of what they’re looking for, and this expanded partnership with Fanatics conveniently brings more officially-licensed products across more favorite sports teams to Kohls.com,” said Doug Howe, Kohl’s chief merchandising officer.