The Washington Post reports that over the past two years, Target has managed to remake itself “as a retail success. The brand is on track to remodel 1,000 stores by the end of 2020. It has launched more than 20 private-label brands. And customers are hooked on Target’s roster of shipping options, including same-day delivery and curbside pickup … The proof was in Tuesday’s earnings results: Target celebrated its best year since 2005. Comparable sales in 2018, a measure of sales online and at stores open more than a year, grew by 5 percent. Comparable digital sales alone climbed 36 percent -- marking the fifth consecutive year in which that figure grew more than 25 percent.”
According to the story, “Target has focused on giving customers options for how they shop. Its physical stores work in tandem with online shopping and delivery options. A customer can put in order through an app and then opt for curb-side pickup, for example, or peruse at a physical store and have the shopping bags delivered later on. In the fourth quarter, stores fulfilled nearly three of every four of Target’s digital sales.
“Target’s delivery service, Shipt, has expanded to 1,500 stores. Drive-up is now an option in more than 1,000 stores. And those options are actually driving down Target’s fulfillment costs. Physical stores are treated like small hubs, often in place of massive distribution centers far away from shoppers’ homes. Order pickup and drive-up costs the company 90 percent less on average than fulfilling an order from a warehouse, Target said on Tuesday.”
According to the story, “Target has focused on giving customers options for how they shop. Its physical stores work in tandem with online shopping and delivery options. A customer can put in order through an app and then opt for curb-side pickup, for example, or peruse at a physical store and have the shopping bags delivered later on. In the fourth quarter, stores fulfilled nearly three of every four of Target’s digital sales.
“Target’s delivery service, Shipt, has expanded to 1,500 stores. Drive-up is now an option in more than 1,000 stores. And those options are actually driving down Target’s fulfillment costs. Physical stores are treated like small hubs, often in place of massive distribution centers far away from shoppers’ homes. Order pickup and drive-up costs the company 90 percent less on average than fulfilling an order from a warehouse, Target said on Tuesday.”
- KC's View:
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Still a long way to go, with plenty of stores needing lots of attention. (Example: the awful store in Stamford, Connecticut.) But there’s no question that Target seems to have found an omnichannel path that is taking it in the right direction.
