What: After Kohl’s underperforming stock, shareholders are pushing the department store to either split off its e-commerce and legacy store operations into two companies or sell itself.

Why it is important: HBC retailers have all gone through such separations, so the suggestion is not unprecedented, but how its affecting their operations remains to be seen.

An e-commerce spinoff entails severing the retailer's online and brick-and-mortar operations while keeping its brand and customer experience intact.

This has become a favored tactic among financial pros these days, at least when it comes to department stores.

While financial wizards are keen on the idea, many analysts and retail experts are not, citing the difficulty of two companies maintaining seamless branding, merchandising and fulfillment as demanded by the customer. If you take Walmart and Amazon for example, it seems that they are spending more time integrating their online and offline operations.

Hedge fund pushes Kohl's to consider e-commerce spinoff