After successfully completing a pilot earlier in the year, J.C. Penney will be getting back into the home appliance business, adding appliance showrooms to almost 500 stores beginning in early July.

This means nearly half of J.C. Penney Stores, including locations in Ford City Mall and North Riverside Park Mall, will be offering kitchen and laundry appliances from brands such as L.G. Electronics, Samsung, Hotpoint and G.E. Appliances when the summer rolls in.

J.C. Penney actually had "full-line" stores back in the day. These appliance-selling stores started operation in 1963, but the business had to be cut away 20 years later to prioritize soft home goods, such as towels, linens and beddings and apparels. However, customers have been searching for home appliances in the department store's website, and this has helped make a strong case for bringing back J.C. Penney's home appliance business.

"When we looked at data on what customers would buy from us if we carried them, appliances were at the top of the list," said David Plummer, a senior vice president in charge of overseeing the J.C. Penney home business.

Department stores were the primary destination for home appliances, but the business has shifted over the years. Where 23 percent of major appliance sales were attributed to department stores in 2005, that share was down to 14 percent in 2015.

Where are people buying home appliances now? Garden and home specialty stores, it turns out. Home appliance sales from stores such as Lowe's and Home Depot resulted in a 34 percent share last year.

Sears is still making good money out of its home appliance business, but J.C. Penney shares many locations with the department store where the two are flagships. Sears is the only choice for appliances in many of these locations, so if J.C. Penney plays its cards right, it will be able to take a share of the home appliance market for itself.

Each store that will be carrying home appliances will have between 2,000 and 4,800 square feet of space set aside to accommodate between 100 and 215 products. Online, over 1,200 home appliances will be available.

In 2015, some 60 million refrigerators, washing machines, ovens, dishwashers and other major appliances were sold in the United States. That's $38.4 billion in sales, up 4 percent from 2014. Customers looking to sell their homes or simply have more disposable income have the tendency to gravitate toward higher-end home appliances.

Photo: Jeremy Levine | Flickr