Retailers are facing pressures like wage increases and tariff impacts, but Kohl's CEO Michelle Gass told CNBC on Tuesday that the company is working to make sure the customer is happy.

"It really does start with that customer and ensuring that we're priced appropriately and competitively," Gass said in an interview with Courtney Reagan.

To that end, the retailer is focused on two key priorities: driving sales and traffic, as well as operational excellence.

"We have our teams all focused on ways to work differently so we can extract costs that are less productive and reinvest them in the business. So that might be some of the long-term bets we have like technology or also mitigating shorter-term issues, like wages increasing."

Kohl's was among the coalition of retailers that sent letters to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer opposing the U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.

The two nations have been engaged in a tit-for-tat tariff battle and retailers have warned that the escalating trade war would undermine the U.S. economy and raise prices.