Target continues to do a lot of things right. Unlike other retailers who think business will come back on its own, Target — like Walmart — has continued to experiment with innovative ideas and concepts. As a result, their business is doing better than many other retailers. What I like about Target is they’re not afraid to make changes if something is not working. That is how they will maintain success. Also, they brought their stores together with buy online pick up in-store which is smart because that gets customers visiting their locations. Their online business even with the recent growth is still a small percentage of their overall sales, so it’s essential that they don’t lose focus on their stores and they have not.

At last, Target seems to be moving in the right direction. Still, it has a long way to go to catch Walmart and Amazon. To continue growth, Target needs to emphasize its store brands and prove that they are worthy in terms of style and quality, provide better customer service in stores and limit out-of-stocks. Online, free shipping has helped Target compete with Amazon, but Target’s website still lags Amazon and Walmart in search capabilities, and its SEO on Google frequently brings e-shoppers to pages that don’t carry the desired product.

I have always loved Target’s approach to developing modern stylistic controlled brands. This sets them apart and provides a unique reason for shoppers to frequent their stores. Certainly, the Magnolia association is timely.

Target has focused on the correct categories with their new brands for the holidays. This should lead to a great holiday selling season.

The challenge they face is price competition from larger brands who are deeply discounting to grab sales and customers. Another challenge for all retailers is the Amazon effect during the holidays.

Will Target make significant gains? Are you talking comps or share gain or profitability or customer acquisition? Let’s say comps. Are you talking year on year or a five year stack? Nit picky, right? But it matters to clarify what “significant gains” means. Simply, Target will comp over LY. Seems it has sorted supply chain/in-stock, assortment (it’s the goods, not the brands), in-store signage, a return to likable personality, price, and marcom. Target’s audience definition seems to be refocused on middle American families with enough ambiguity to protect the urban stores. While not a popular topic, I think the “l’affair bathroom” remains, but has faded in importance. Certainly in light of the swirling cacophony of moral issues. Still, will suburban moms return in number to lift sales 1-3%? Operationally it seems Target sorted its online challenges and might be on parity with Walmart circa 2014. And that remains the threat to growth. Walmart moved more aggressively and dramatically to increase its relevance to a broader audience. Has Walmart’s repositioning worked? If so, Target will struggle… Read more »

“Early” is certainly the key word in George’s headline … as the key phrase in the article is “under-promise.” And once again, if we’re going to preach omnichannel let’s practice it: who should care that the small proportion of online sales became somewhat less so if overall sales don’t grow?

Those gripes out of the way, I’m sure everyone, save perhaps their competitors, wants them to get their mojo back. And that mojo came from a simple formula: better-than-average merchandise presented well and sold at lower-than-average (or at least no more than average) prices. If they can do that again, without the distracting screw-ups of security breaches, ill-planned expansions, and what-not, then I think they’ll do OK. But I’ll wait ’til year’s end to see.