Target to cut Minnesota jobs while expanding in N.Y., California by Tom Webb at Twin Cities/Pioneer Press. “What will give Minnesota economic officials heartburn is seeing the chief strategy officer, Casey Carl, boast that corporate Target is “branching out to other places” to secure talent – then showing a slide that listed Target’s growing lineup of offices in California, New York and India, on the same day it said it would cut thousands of jobs from its hometown.” Read more

 

…Star Tribune’s Kavita Kumar and Colleagues Tweet During Target Investor Conference  Read the Tweets

 

…”We did not anticipate that the cuts would be this high” by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. “Burt Flickinger III, managing director of Strategic Resource Group in New York, said the scope of the cuts was surprising. “With all the problems passed along from the prior management, we knew that the cuts would be high,” Flickinger said. “But we did not anticipate that the cuts would be this high.” Read more

 

…Brian Cornell: “The performance of City Targets has been nothing short of phenomenal” by Hadley Malcom at USA Today  Read more

 

Wal-Mart suppliers face tight talent capacity amid steady growth by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “Anywhere from 80 to 100 jobs remain unfilled at any given time, according to Cameron Smith, CEO of Cameron Smith & Associates of Rogers. Corporate recruiters on Cameron Smith’s team describe the talent pool as “tight” despite consolidation of teams resulting from mergers.” Read more

 

Home Depot gets $200M and tax breaks from Cobb County by Carla Caldwell at Atlanta Business Chronicle. “Home Depot said the money will be used to renovate the company’s Cumberland headquarters and to buy equipment for a building in Marietta that will become a new Home Depot IT center…Home Depot’s (Michael) LaFerle said 525 new jobs will be created at the new IT center.” Read more

 

***New Product Spotlight – Orchard Road Launches Series of Decorative Canning Products.  The decorative series of canning caps features three custom designs: Wild Daisy, Fruit and Gingham.  Finally something unique to drive incremental sales in the home canning and storage categories!  Come see us this weekend at the Housewares Show in booth S3920.  See the new line for the first time here.  For more information: info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.

 

FAA proposes fining Home Depot for lighter fluid leak by Jim Hammerand & Carla Caldwell at Minn./St.Paul Business Journal. “The Federal Aviation Administration is proposing a civil penalty of $96,000 against The Home Depot Inc. for alleged hazardous materials violations.” Read more

 

How a 25-Year-Old Investor Spurred Lumber Liquidators’ Plunge by Matt Townsend at Bloomberg. “Xuhua Zhou, who had dropped out of UCLA’s doctoral program in finance and become an individual investor, took an interest in Lumber Liquidators about two years ago…“It’s pretty amazing what he did on his own,” said Tilson, head of Kase Capital Management, calling Zhou “the pioneer” of the Lumber Liquidators story.” Read more

 

…Short trader stands to make $3 million if the stock goes to zero by Michelle Celarier at NY Post. Read more

 

…Shares climbed 5 percent yesterday at Bloomberg.  Read more

 

Target owed $1.9-billion from its own property firm by Marina Strauss at The Globe & Mail. “Suppliers, however, plan to fight the new claim at a court hearing on Thursday, noting it could dash their hopes to recover an estimated $400-million in the retailer’s wind-down process.” Read more

 

Look inside San Francisco’s new TargetExpress, set to open today by Annie Sciacca at San Francisco Business Times.  Read more / See the pics

 

Best Buy plans to trim another $400M after cutting $1B, CEO says by Nick Halter at Minn./St.Paul Business Journal. “The savings Joly mentioned “are not related to headcount,” a Best Buy spokesman said.” Read more

 

Wayfair Q4 Direct Revenue +38.4%  Read the release

 

Fresh Market debuts new store model for Charlotte by Jennifer Thomas at Charlotte Business Journal.  See the 28 pics / Read more

 

Home Depot at Raymond James 36th Annual Investors Conference Highlights

See the PowerPoint presentation

Richard McPhail, SVP Finance Home Depot

Housing turnover: have recovered from 3.3 million units sold in 2010 to 5 million units sold in 2014.

Two thirds of the housing stock in the United States is over 27 years old.

The Pro makes up about 3% of our customer account but about 35% of our sales and then in our store every week and every day. 

Water heaters: In 2014, when we analyzed this category we discovered that actually there were a set of clusters.

(Later this year) we will have the capability to deliver product to 90% of the nation in two days or less.

homedepot.com: we had $1.2 billion online business last year, over 36% growth in sales which represent about 4.5% penetration of total company sales. 

50% of store visits we believe are actually begun on the homedepot.com. 

Roughly 40% of all orders through homedepot.com are fulfilled through the store.

One in five customers picking up an online order actually buy an additional item while they are in our stores.

We believe that roughly 10% of all of our online orders at homedepot.com are from a customer device when they’re standing in the aisle of our store.

Read the full transcript via Seeking Alpha

 

 

Dick’s Q4 Earnings Call Highlights

 

Ed Stack, Chairman & CEO

We delivered a 10.9% increase in sales.

Our consolidated omni-channel same-store sales increased 3.4% with increases in both ticket and traffic.

The trending in hunting improved significantly during 2014. Golf trend also showed a slight improvement from the spring of 2014.

Golf Galaxy was down 7.1% with Dick’s golf business slightly better.

The balance of our business excluding hunting and golf was up 6% for the quarter.

We expect to deliver 2015 full year consolidated comp growth of 1% to 3%.

We still feel good about the number (goal) of 800 stores. 

There is no real other big initiative or other brands that we’re launching outside of (CALIA from) Carrie Underwood. And what we’re doing with that space is we’re just re-configuring some space and it would be coming out of primarily Adidas and Rebook.

Footwear business: basketball is trending better than running.

 

Andre Hawaux, CFO

In 2014 we…opened 45 net new Dick stores and end of the year with 603 Dick’s stores in 46 states.

Growth of our e-commerce business: approximately 28% over $625 million in sales in 2014.

In the first quarter of 2015 we plan to launched golfgalaxy.com on our new platform as we prepare to bring the dick’s.com e-commerce site in house in January of 2017.

The 3.8% consolidated increase in the Dick’s business was driven by a 3% increase in traffic and by 0.8% increase in sales per transaction. 

In 2015, we expect to open up approximately 45 new Dick stores relocate 9 Dick stores and relocate one Golf Galaxy store.

Expect to open 9 new Field & Stream stores this year.

Read the full transcript via Seeking Alpha

 

***

Eye-on-Retail Tipsheet is read worldwide by Retail Merchants & Executives and created early every weekday morning. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s happening in the world of retail. Contact us at info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.

 

Target’s Brian Cornell Sits Down with Star-Tribune by Kavita Kumar. “We like light bulbs,” said Cornell, who celebrated his 56th birthday last week. “But we’re not going to be famous for selling light bulbs.”…Cornell met with the leaders of Warby Parker in New York, where he learned about how they vet ideas and quickly bring them to life. It was the first time a CEO of a big-box retailer had come to see the company’s offices…In November, Cornell met three generations of the Dayton family at a cocktail reception for Cornell and his wife, Martha, at the home of Eric Dayton.” Read more

 

Amazon Files Patent For 3D Manufacturing Orders In Delivery Vans by Nida Zamir at TechFrag. “Amazon has now filed a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, for a new delivery system which will allow the e-commerce giant to manufacture customers’ orders using 3D printing technology while the orders are on their way to the customers’ doorstep.” Read more

 

…See the patent at USPTO

 

Seattle: Wal-Mart on the hunt for 1M square-foot distribution center by Marc Stiles at Puget Sound Business Journal. Read more

 

***A message from Comfy Sacks – ‘Big and fun’ foam bag chairs are amazingly comfortable. Incredibly soft micro-suede covers and our uniquely comfortable shredded foam filling make the Comfy Sacks experience one your customers won’t want to miss!  These foam bag chairs are up to 7.5 feet in size and are great for living rooms, basements, kids rooms, dorm rooms, etc. For product details contact info@shiftmarketinggroup.net  See the sack/website

 

’60 Minutes’ airs troubling report detailing major problems at Lumber Liquidators by Myles Udland at Business Insider. “60 Minutes sent an undercover team to a factory in China to speak with factory managers who admitted that product being produced for Lumber Liquidators was labeled “CARB 2” compliant when it fact it was not. When showed some of this footage during an interview with “60 Minutes” Anderson Cooper, Lumber Liquidators chairman and founder Tom Sullivan said the company would be in that factory “tomorrow.” Read more

 

…See the segment at 60 Minutes  See the video

 

NY Times: China’s Long Food Chain Plugs In by Alexandra Stevenson & Paul Mozur. “Controlling China’s sprawling food supply chain has proved a frustrating endeavor. Government regulators and state-owned agriculture companies have tried to tackle the problem in a number of ways — increasing factory inspections, conducting mass laboratory tests, enhancing enforcement procedures, even with prosecutions and executions — but food safety scandals still emerge too often.” Read more

 

Kit & Ace, the new retail venture from the son of Lululemon Athletica Inc founder, has been resounding success by Hollie Shaw at Financial Post. “Since co-founding Kit & Ace nine months ago with his stepmother, Shannon Wilson, the “technical luxury” clothing brand has sold so well the pair is aiming to open 30 to 50 new locations in North America by the end of 2015.” Read more

 

Google campus plan would explode the concept of buildings & workspace by Nathan Donato-Weinstein at Silicon Valley Business Journal. “Google’s vision, contained in a master plan submitted to Mountain View officials…would see wide swaths of land returned to nature, crisscrossed by walking trails and dotted by plazas, community gardens and oak groves. New ground-floor retail, markets and cultural spaces would invite the public, and walking paths would run through at least one of the buildings — letting outsiders inside the Google hive.” Read more / See the 10 pics

 

***

Eye-on-Retail Tipsheet is read worldwide by Retail Merchants & Executives and created early every weekday morning. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s happening in the world of retail. Contact us at info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.

 

 

 

 

Wal-Mart CEO talks about pay raises, how customers shop and what he’s learned from critics by Anne D’Innocenzio at AP via Star Tribune. “McMillon, 48, spoke with The Associated Press exclusively about the pay and training increases, the fallout from the Bangladesh disaster and other issues that are affecting Wal-Mart. What follows are edited excerpts from a 40-minute interview at Wal-Mart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.” Read the interview

 

Dollar Tree says Family Dollar stores could be re-branded by Katherine Peralta & Ely Portillo at Charlotte Observer. “Switching Family Dollar stores to Dollar Tree and vice-versa. “Most of the early re-bannering will be Family Dollar stores to Dollar Tree stores,” (CEO Bob) Sasser told investors. Family Dollar stores in the suburbs could be especially ripe for a transition, he said. “Our first priority was to take a look at the Family Dollar, underperforming Family Dollar stores that would perform better as Dollar Tree stores.” Read more

 

Dollar Tree Q4 Comp Sales +5.6%  Read the release

 

Target hints at grocery makeover by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. “The impending changes are making suppliers nervous as they wonder if they will be part of Target’s plan, said Amy Koo, an analyst with Kantar Retail.” Read more

 

Target CFO John Mulligan Appears on CNBC  See the video

 

Target Q4 Comp Sales +3.8%  Read the release

 

***New Product Spotlight – A Message from CLUG.  The CLUG Bike Clip is the world’s smallest bike rack that is targeted at the urban cyclist and the casual enthusiast who are short on storage space for their bikes.  CLUG is a patent pending, high quality product that made the list of 2014 Best Stuff by GQ Magazine in their December 2014 issue.  CLUG is now ready for retail with its 100% recyclable, high volume packaging.  See the video.  See the sell sheet. Contact info@shiftmarketinggroup.net for more information.

 

NY Times: Next Goal for Walmart Workers: More Hours by Hiroku Tabuchi. “He says he constantly begs his managers for full-time work at the bustling Walmart superstore in Rosemead, Calif. He generally works around 28 hours a week, but can be assigned as few as 18. “I work as hard as I can, and when they offer me hours, I stay,” he said. “But when the time comes, and I beg them for hours because I’m not going to afford rent, they don’t want to help me.” Read more

 

A Target wage increase could be coming soon by Nick Halter at Minn./St.Paul Business Journal. “Edward Jones analyst Brian Yarbrough expects a wage announcement Tuesday at Target’s annual analyst day in response to Walmart’s recent announcement that it will boost its minimum wage to $10 an hour. “I would assume that’s why Target’s not giving annual guidance today and that’s what they’re going to talk about on their analyst day,” Yarbrough said. “I would assume Target is going to match (Walmart) it or potentially take it even higher.” Read more

 

Wal-Mart exec says retailer still committed to U.S manufacturing push by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “…some say all has seemed quiet on the retailer’s push to return manufacturing jobs to the U.S. since the departure of former Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon, Wal-Mart disagrees…Catherine Johnson, seafood buyer at Wal-Mart for the past 5 years, said her team is seeking out locally sourced seafood items…“Next month we are traveling to Boston for a seafood show and we recently completed a trip to the Pacific Northwest to Pike’s Market. We source shrimp and what we can from the Louisiana Gulf,” Johnson said.” Read more

 

Ace Hardware reports record revenue and income for the year by Lewis Lazare at Chicago Business Journal. “Ace posted revenues of $4.7 billion, an increase over the previous year of $546.3 million of 13.2 percent.” Read more

 

Sears Revenue Falls 23.5%, Comp Sales -4.4%  Read more

 

Kohl’s Q4 Comp Sales +3.7%  Read the release

 

Lumber Liquidators warns of possible criminal charges at AP via St. Louis Post Dispatch. “CEO Robert Lynch said in a conference call Wednesday that news program “60 Minutes” may feature the company in an “unfavorable” segment this weekend. He said the story is related to a 2014 lawsuit that alleged the company did not properly warn customers that certain products may emit formaldehyde.” Read more

 

Guest Author: Rebuilding Empires by Thomas Lee (Excerpt 3 of 4). Published by St. Martin’s Press.

In his corner office at Target corporate headquarters, Jeff Jones keeps a copy of The Singularity is Near by futurist and Google engineer director Ray Kurtzwell. In the book, Kurtzwell argues that technological advances like computers and the Internet will create such exponential growth that it will eventually outstrip humans’ ability to comprehend the phenomenon.

“Target has been extraordinary at strategic planning,” Jones said. We’ve been very clear about our destination, of the initiatives we had to tackle. Keeping that same discipline and clarity is important, especially when you’re dealing with several hundred thousand employees that you’re trying to bring along on a journey. We just kind of knew it’s going to look like this and these are the things that will allow us to achieve our goals.”

“But in today’s world, given the pace of transformation, you need to also create the environment and the comfort level with the ambiguity of what that actually means. The cycles of innovation that are impacting humans, let alone impacting retail, are just faster than ever. We need to create a culture of comfort with the unknown so people still are driven to go fast and are destination oriented, they want to win, they’ve got goals, but they also recognize that arriving there just might not be the same linear path that it used to be.”

 

Target Q4 Earnings Call Highlights

 

Brian Cornell, CEO 

Our fourth quarter comparable sales increase of 3.8% was also stronger than the updated guidance we provided in January, as we saw unexpected strength in our store channel sales in the last two weeks of the quarter.

The digital channel growth contributed nearly a full percentage point to our fourth quarter comparable sales increase.

We’re seeing strong financial results from our eight City Target stores and we’ve seen very strong initial performance in the test of our first Target Express location, which opened here in the Twin Cities last August.

In 2015, of the 15 new stores we’re planning to open more than half of these are new formats with eight additional express stores and a new City Target set to open in Boston, next to Fenway Park.

I can tell you that the entire leadership team is prioritized, one, increasing traffic to our stores, and two, visits to our site. Kathee and I were recently out in the market together.

We spent several days visiting our stores, looking at competitive food retailers as we begin to build our reinvention plans for food.

 

Kathee Tesija, Chief Merchandising & Supply Chain Officer

We saw particularly strong trends in fourth quarter sales in our signature categories. Specifically, healthcare, beauty, apparel and home, all grew faster than our overall sales.

Within apparel, results were strongest in baby and kid, and home comps were led by domestics and seasonal items.

Our toy category had a fantastic quarter recording a double-digit increase in comparable sales.

Digital channel for the fourth quarter, we saw a high single-digit increase in visits, driven entirely by growth in mobile which includes both tablets and smartphones.

Orders were up well over 50% driven by very strong conversion increases on both the conventional site and mobile. 

Mobile accounted for more than 40% of our digital orders in the fourth quarter. 

In home, we have begun testing highly inspirational vignettes to show product in lifestyle settings which we’re rolling out to another 15 stores this quarter. 

Farther back in the testing phase, we are looking at innovations to bring even more fun to our toy area.

On Black Friday, 10% of our iPhone app revenue was from guests purchasing on their phone while they were simultaneously shopping one of our stores.

35% of the time guests who picked up a digital order also shopped the store on the same visit.

Following the addition of Mannequins at the apparel floor pad, in more than 600 stores last fall, we are planning to roll them out to another 400 stores this quarter.

Based on the guest response to our enhanced, entertainment and electronics experience which is currently in 42 stores, we plan to roll this environment out to another 275 stores this year.

 

John Mulligan, CFO

Digital channel sales increased a robust 36% in the fourth quarter.

Outlook for Q1: We expect our comparable sales to increase about 2%, driven by an increase in digital channel sales of 30% or more, combined with the modest growth in store channel sales.

Read the full transcript via Seeking Alpha

 

 

Lowe’s Q4 Earnings Call Highlights

 

Robert Niblock, CEO

Comparable sales growth of 7.3%.

Comp growth was driven by a 4.9% increase in comp average ticket and a 2.3% increase in comp transactions. 

 All 14 regions had comps greater than 5%.

Canada delivered double-digit comps in local currency for the seventh consecutive quarter.

Approximately one-half of homeowners now believe the value of their homes is increasing.

 

Rick Damron, CPO

Purchases made on Lowes.com, approximately 60% are picked up in store.

Above-company average comps in flooring, kitchens, appliances, lumber, building materials, millwork and outdoor power equipment.

Our interior project specialist program has an average ticket above $10,000…So we are expanding into another 470 stores in 2015 reaching over three-fourths of our stores by year-end. 

Lowe’s now has the number one and number two brands making us the destination for pneumatic tools, particularly for the pro.

We are also completing our beta test of lowesforpros.com, which has been well-received by our pilot customers.

We will reduce our total marketing spend even while increasing our presence in targeted digital media.

Our pro accounts grew 24% during the quarter.

lowes.com: was up 25% for the quarter, 2.5% of our total sales for the year.

 

Bob Hull, CFO

Looking at monthly trends, comps were 6.7% in November, 7.2% in December and 8.2% in January.

For the year, we expect a total sales increase of approximately 4.5% to 5% driven by a comp sales increase of 4% to 4.5% and the opening of 15 to 20 stores, which includes six Orchard and two city center locations.

Kitchens, flooring, millwork, all three of those categories are the furthest away from where they were back in the peak. What I can tell you is, at the peak, those items were — those three categories were close to 19%, 20% of our sales. Today, they are 16% to 17%. 

Read the full transcript via The Street

 

***

Eye-on-Retail Tipsheet is read worldwide by Retail Merchants & Executives and created early every weekday morning. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s happening in the world of retail. Contact us at info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.

 

Home Depot Q4 US Comp Sales +8.9% “The Home Depot today reported sales of $19.2 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, an 8.3 percent increase from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013. Comparable store sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 were positive 7.9 percent.” Read the release

 

CNBC: Home Depot profit rises 36%, warns on currency by Katie Little. “Oppenheimer & Co. Managing Director Brian Nagel told CNBC this was “another very good report from Home Depot” which illustrated both the company’s strength from an operational standpoint and signs that the home improvement market is solid.” Read more

 

In wake of dock pact, some ‘ships in a hurry’ depart so fast they leave cargo behind by Steve Wilhelm at Puget Sound Business Journal. “Carriers want to get back on schedule, and so they’re leaving early,” she said. “Maybe we were surprised to find the ships were leaving early, unexpectedly early, and leaving cargo behind.” Read more

 

Target Slashes Free Shipping Minimum to $25 at A Bullseye View. Read more

 

…The move gives Target the lowest free shipping threshold among retailers in the top 25 of Internet Retailer’s Top 500 Guide, except for Nordstrom by Matt Linder at Internet Retailer.  Read more 

 

Wal-Mart de Mexico Chief Financial Officer to Retire by Amy Guthrie at WSJ. “Chief Financial Officer Rafael Matute, who has worked at the retailer for 28 years, will be replaced by Wal-Mart Latin America CFO Pedro Farah.” Read more (Subscription)

 

Amazon negotiating for Twin Cities distribution center site by Sam Black at Minn./St.Paul Business Journal. “Amazon.com is negotiating to buy 66 acres in Shakopee to develop a large distribution center…the two sides are very close to a purchase agreement for about half of the Shenandoah Business Park, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.” Read more

 

Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO buys South Florida mansion for $12M by Brian Bandell at South Florida Business Journal. “The 8,946-square-foot home sits on 1.05 acres along a private beach at 11610 Turtle Beach Road. The five-bedroom, five-bathroom home was built in 1977 and valued by the county appraiser at $5.4 million.” Read more

 

***New Product Spotlight – A Message from CLUG.  The CLUG Bike Clip is the world’s smallest bike rack that is targeted at the urban cyclist and the casual enthusiast who are short on storage space for their bikes.  CLUG is a patent pending, high quality product that made the list of 2014 Best Stuff by GQ Magazine in their December 2014 issue.  CLUG is now ready for retail with its 100% recyclable, high volume packaging.  See the video.  See the sell sheet.  Contact info@shiftmarketinggroup.net for more information.

 

Target Gives ‘Caroline’s Cart’ a Test Run in 20+ Cities this Spring by Nadine Maeser at WBDJ 7 CBS – Roanoke. “Caroline’s Cart is  unique because it has a 5-point harness and allows a person to face the shopper while they browse the aisles…(Amanda) McClelland says she plans on asking other stores like Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club to get the cart as well.” See the video / Read more

 

Amazon Fuels DHL Unit Expansion on E-Commerce Boom in India by Adi Narayan at Bloomberg. “Up to five years ago, you never had e-commerce figuring in BlueDart’s list of top five verticals,” said Monteiro, who oversees all of Blue Dart’s operations. “Today, it is the largest vertical and demand is far outstripping supply.” Read more

 

Aldi sees potential for 450 stores in Texas by Maria Halkias at Dallas News. “The company is looking for producers and growers of all sizes, (Hector) Alejandro said. “Some companies may only be able to supply us in one or two states,” he said.” Read more

 

Morgan Stanley: Dicks Sporting Goods Could Take Market Share From Sports Authority by Kevin Riley at Benzinga. “40 percent of The Sports Authority’s 451 stores are within 5 miles of Dick’s 603 stores (65 percent within 10 miles). Read more

 

Chef Jenn creates gourmet seafood for Wal-Mart by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “Last summer she said a friend emailed her a news piece about Wal-Mart holding its first Open Call in Bentonville looking for new suppliers…McCullough met with Catherine Johnson a seafood buyer at Wal-Mart and still had no expectations that the retailer would want to stock her seafood entree…She made a few trips back to Bentonville and we launched in 300 to 400 stores to start,” Johnson said.”  Read more

 

Home Depot data breach court battle will unfold between May and August by David Allison at Atlanta Business Chronicle. Read more

 

Ann Taylor, Chico’s Seek Buyers to Overhaul Aging Brands by Lindsey Rupp at Bloomberg. “Both Chico’s and Ann have been in discussions with private-equity buyers, according to people familiar with the talks. Neither company has announced a deal.” Read more

 

Guest Author: Rebuilding Empires by Thomas Lee (Excerpt 1 of 4). “When Target first started to develop Cartwheel in early 2013, the retailer had modest expectations for its social savings tool. More so than other retailers, Target enjoys a web-savvy customer base that loves to chat about their purchases just as much as they like to buy them.

Partnering with Facebook, the retailer would offer daily deals to customers, who could later redeem the offers via their mobile devices at Target stores. Shoppers could earn even more discounts if they convinced their social media friends to sign up for Cartwheel and redeem deals.

“People love talking about Target, our differentiated product or content,” said multichannel chief Casey Carl. “They love to share their thoughts on it. ‘Hey, I just got this great dress. I’m going to wear this here. What do you think? Fantastic.’”

But something else happened. Much to their surprise, shoppers weren’t just sharing deals on Facebook: they were visiting Target stores more often and buying more stuff per trip, Carl said.

“That actually wasn’t how we designed it,” he said. “But I will tell you that we’ve done a major pivot from what we originally conceived it to be. About half of our guests are actually using it in-store. The best description is like your weather app. They’re using it all the time as a utility app and as an inspirational thing where the social element really plays.”

 

***

Eye-on-Retail is a daily tipsheet read by thousands of Retail Merchants & Executives every weekday morning. Eye-on-Retail is created and delivered early AM every day.  We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s happening in the world of retail. Contact us at info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.