Women's Wear Daily named J. C. Penney as the number one destination to shop for women's apparel. The company's online store, jcpenney.com, is launched in 1998 with sales totaling $15 million for the first year. In 1999, Vanessa Castagna is recruited fro Wal-Mart to become the Chief Operating Officer. The second year of operation for jcpenney.com saw online sales increase to $102 million, a 600% increase. April 14, 2002 marked J. C. Penney's one hundredth year of being in business. In 2006, the company spokesman, Tim Lyons, introduced Winning Together, which was a set of internal goals that epitomize the internal goals J. C. Penney strives to achieve, (Beaver, n.d.). .
The Great Recession hit the middle-class mom, J. C. Penney's core customer, harder than most. Due to the extensive impact on its core customer J. C. Penney's recovery lagged behind its competitors as they emerged from the economic decline, (Reingold, 2014). J. C. Penney's recovery was also stymied by Ullman's massive 2008 deal with Ralph Lauren to launch American Living, was a Polo-lite brand sold only at Penney, which failed largely because J. C. Penney was not allowed to the Ralph Lauren name or the Polo logo. In October of 2010, investor Steven Roth of Vornado REIT, and Bill Ackman, head of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital, acquired twenty-six percent of J. C. Penney shares. Roth and Ackman believed the company could easily become a $60 stock if changes were made. Ackman gained a seat on the J.C. Penney board, and announced his plan to bring in Ron Johnson, the 15-year Target veteran behind Apple's successful retail stores and Genius Bar. The J. C. Penney board went along with Ackman's plan, and brought in Ron Johnson to revitalize the company. .
Johnson's brief tenure at J. C. Penney introduced a new logo, Ellen DeGeneres as spokesperson, a simplified pricing strategy, reduction in the number of times prices are marked down, redesigned department stores with a town square area of services and a perimeter of small shops.
