Kohl’s (KSS) third quarter earnings

Kohl’s on Tuesday forecast a bigger-than-previously-expected drop in annual sales, a sign the department store chain is struggling to attract customers as it navigates a CEO change ahead of a big holiday shopping season.

Shares of the Menomonee Falls, Wis.-based company fell 18% before the bell as it also reported worse-than-expected third-quarter results.

The weak forecast underscores an uncertain holiday season for the retail sector, which may tilt in favor of competitors such as Walmart and Amazon.comas customers become more and more offer-focused.

Kohl’s, whose stock has fallen 36% in value this year due to its turnaround efforts, announced the departure of CEO Tom Kingsbury a day earlier. He will be succeeded by Ashley Buchanan, retail veteran and Michaels Companies boss, in January.

The company now enters the critical and shorter holiday period, when retailers offer aggressive discounts to entice consumer spending early in the season.

“Our third quarter results fell short of our expectations as sales remained soft in our apparel and footwear business,” CEO Kingsbury said.

Kohl’s launched a three-day Black Friday event with early access between November 8th and 10th and is running Black Friday deals between November 24th and 29th.

Strong beauty sales from the company’s partnership with beauty retailer Sephora have also begun to fade as Kohl’s finishes rolling out 140 small Sephora openings this year.

“Revenue really struggled when they (the company) finished the (Sephora) rollout. Basically, the low-hanging fruit seems to be gone,” said M science analyst Matthew Jacob.

Kohl’s comparable sales fell 9.3% for the quarter ended Nov. 2, its eleventh straight quarter of decline. Analysts on average had expected a 5.1% decline, according to data compiled by LSEG.

It earned 20 cents per per share, missing an estimate of 28 cents.

The company now expects a decline of 7% to 8% for the full year, compared with its previous forecast of a decline of between 4% and 6%.