Apple inside of Target

Commercial partnerships examined.

Will Apple find more room to grow inside of Target?

14 EXPERT COMMENTS

by Matthew Stern  in Retailwire

Target is expanding its partnership with Apple so that more people looking for Apple products at the general merchandise retailer can have an experience closer to what they would get at the Apple store.

The Apple at Target store-within-a-store concept is now operating in 150 Target store locations, according to a press release. The current count represents a threefold increase from the begnning of the year.

The concept dedicates twice as much selling space to Apple products than are usually found in Target stores. The shops are staffed by Apple-trained Target tech consultants.

Along with the expansion of the brick-and-mortar relationship, Target is giving Target Circle members four free months of trial access to Apple Fitness+ and will be offering deals on other Apple services, as well.

Jill Sando, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer at Target, called Apple at Target another reason for customers to “choose Target for all their shopping and tech service needs.”

Target has had a great deal of success with other store-within-a-store partnerships.

Its partnership with Starbucks, which began in 1999, is not only still in operation but has scaled to more than 1,300 of Target’s 1,900 locations, according to an article on TechCrunch. Target even began folding Starbucks orders into its curbside pickup service in February of 2022.

Target has also experimented with smaller-scale in-store shops. In 2016, when FitBits and other health monitors were still buzzworthy technology, Target piloted a “connected health” section in 510 of its stores. The shops were anchored by health technology from a vendor named Qardio, and were adjacent to store pharmacies.

This is also not the first time Apple has opened stores inside of other electronics retailers.

In the mid-2000s, Apple began opening shops inside of Best Buy locations, as an article from 2007 on the iPod Observer website discusses. The shops maintained the look and feel that the Apple Store had at the time, and were staffed by an Apple expert.  ....  ' 

Omnichannel Profitable in Post Pandemic?

 Been asked similar questions in recent interactions.  What will the change be and should retailers react? 

Can omnichannel be as profitable for retailers as in-store sales? in Retailwire  by Yogesh Kulkarni with further expert opinion.

The pandemic has accelerated the growth of online sales three to five times depending on the vertical and, even as in-store comes back, no one expects online to regress to pre-pandemic levels. COVID-19 has hastened digital initiatives by as much as five years, meaning retailers now need to leapfrog their intended technology and process development roadmap just to stay even with customer expectations and competitors.

Target saw its operating margin drop last year even as digital revenues more than doubled. 

“The biggest factor in ’21 was the supply chain and digital pressure, about 110 basis points of pressure on the year from that, but I think that’s actually a good place to illustrate some of how we think about rate because to me, it’s all about the dollar impact, not the rate impact,” said Target CFO Michael Fiddelke on the company’s recent earnings call. “Digital is a perfect example. If you would have told us we could double the digital business and only see 110 basis points of pressure last year, I think we all would have taken that outcome.”..." 

P&G Looks for Smarter Audiences

Good overview of the direction of my former employer.  With mention of  '1 billion consumer IDs to build audience segments' for more effective marketing.    Some interesting detail in the article.

P&G shifts from targeting ‘generic demographics’ to ‘smart audiences’

The FMCG giant claims a focus on more precise targeting of audiences such as first-time mums is helping its advertising reach “the right people at the right time, in the right place”.   By Sarah Vizard in MarketingWeek

Procter & Gamble (P&G) has credited a shift from “generic demographics” to “smart audiences” with helping improve the effectiveness of its marketing and its innovation pipeline.

Speaking on a call today (30 July) following its full-year results, CEO David Taylor said he is excited about its “smart audience work”, which is helping the company move from “wasteful” mass marketing to mass one-to-one brand building. To do that, it is using the more than 1 billion consumer IDs it has to build audience segments and then do “propensity marketing with people who have similar characteristics”.

“We are going from generic demographic targeting, like women aged 18 to 35, to more than 350 precise smart audiences, like first-time mums, millennial professionals or first-time washing machine owners, to help us reach the right people at the right time, in the right place,” he explained.

“That is only going to get more powerful…and we will get more accomplished at performance marketing to serve people messages that meet their needs.”  .... " 

Target: Its About the Data

Useful view of how Target has addressed Online data

On Target: Rethinking the Retail Website  In HBS Working Data
  
Target is one big-brand retailer that seems to have survived and even thrived in the apocalyptic retail landscape. What's its secret? Srikant Datar discusses the company's relentless focus on online data. .... "     by Dina Gerdeman

Shopping Free with the Google Assistant

Starting an examination of the user experience of hands free voice shopping at well known retailers.   The Google Home assistant has this capability using what they call Google Express.  I just received some instructions by mail for shopping at Target, Costco and Walmart.   Simply expressed, seems easy.   Here are their Voice Orders from Google Home instructions.  More impressions to follow.

More on this effort, from retailers perspective.
Example of its use with Target.

Revinventing the Design of Rx Labels

While we were in the Rx business this is an area we tinkered with,  like the re-design approach.

CVS Taps A Design Legend To Reinvent The Prescription Label. Next Stop: The Pharmacy
Inspired by service-design overhauls at companies such as Disney and Carnival, CVS is hoping to rethink the entire pharmacy experience.    by Cliff Kuang in FastCodesign

Deborah Adler has had a story book career in design. In 2004, she was a grad student at SVA in New York, looking around for a thesis project when she saw her grandmother accidentally take her grandfather’s medication. Thankfully it wasn’t a catastrophe, but it made Adler consider the confusing mess that is the modern prescription bottle. So that patients might never mistake what medication is for them, she designed a system that could be colored coded for the patient. That bottle was almost immediately picked up by Target, and for the MoMA permanent collection; It was later declared a Design of the Decade by the Industrial Designers Society of America. Since then, Adler’s studio has been focused on improving medical outcomes. Which brought her once again to pill bottles.  .... "

Accenture, P&G, Target: Retail Cyber Security

Accenture joins Target and P&G as keynote speaker at cybersecurity summit ... By Marianne Wilson

Accenture has signed on as the title sponsor for the Retail Cyber Intelligence Summit, which will be held in Chicago, October 3 - 4, 2017. The event is sponsored by the Retail Cyber Intelligence Sharing Center (R-CISC). 

Kelly Bissell, managing director of Accenture Security will be the opening keynote speaker at the conference, with an addressed entitled The True Cost of Cybercrime. Vikram Desai, managing director, Accenture Security will lead a breakout session titled, Driving Security Operations Efficiency Through Orchestration and Automation.  

Another keynote speaker, Rich Agostino, chief information security officer at Target Corp, will lead a session titled, "Stepping into Leadership: Staying Ahead of Today's Threats and the Evolving CISO Role." For a Q&A with Agostino on his approach to strategic leadership, how he is addressing the threat landscape and advice for up-and-coming leaders in the industry .... " 

Target Guides Customers with LEDs and Beacons

Navigation was a long time exploration of our innovation center explorations.   Here beacons and LED lights are combined with an App.

With expert discussion.

Target guides customers through the aisles with beacons    by Matthew Stern in RetailLink

Shoppers may soon have an easy way to find what they’re looking for in Target stores, thanks to a new Bluetooth beacon-enabled mapping feature on the retailer’s mobile app.

The beacons, built into the LED lighting of the stores, enable shoppers using the Target smartphone app to see their own position on a store map, according to TechCrunch. As customers move through the store, their position on the map changes correspondingly. App users can also click on products on their shopping lists to reveal the location of the item and see if it’s on sale.

While some of the most familiar implementations of beaconing technology, like triggered coupons, have proven unpopular with customers, some retailers have had success with in-store mapping. .... " 

Target Ignores the Obvious

Former colleague Bob Herbold writes about Target in his intriguing blog about gutsy retail readership.

Google Home Adds Big Retail Connects

 Are the assistant's major goal to directly sell?    Or prepare a new kind of channel for sales?  How will this evolve?   Discussion.

Will Costco, Kohl’s, Target, et al give Google Home an edge over Amazon’s Echo?  by George Anderson

“Okay, Google. How do I shop?” Those simple words may signal Google beginning to eat into the early market share lead that Amazon.com has established with its voice-activated Echo devices.

Yesterday, Google announced in a blog post that owners of its Google Home voice-activated speaker would now be able to place product orders from more than 50 local and national retailers participating in its Express delivery program. Among the more prominent chains participating are Bed Bath & Beyond, Costco, Kohl’s, PetSmart, Target, Walgreens, Wayfair.com and Whole Foods. Moosejaw, which was just acquired by Walmart, is also among retailers in Google’s Express program, although its parent is not, nor are its sister companies — Jet.com, Sam’s Club and ShoeBuy.com.  .... " 

Target Cuts Back on Innovation

Target shelves robot store and secret e-commerce start-up   by George Anderson, In Retailwire:

Target is cutting back on its innovation project plans to concentrate more on its core business operations after coming off a holiday selling season when same-store sales declined 1.3 percent.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that among the projects being shelved are Goldfish, a secret e-commerce start-up that got the go-ahead a year back, as well as a store of the future concept using robots that was slated for construction soon. Other projects, while not scrapped, are being cut back as the chain seeks to get its business turned around. ... "

Changes in the Rules of Retailing

In Knowledge@Wharton:

How Target and Amazon Are Changing the Rules of Retailing
Wharton's Peter Fader and Syracuse's Amanda Nicholson discuss recent moves by Target and Amazon. ..." 

The retail business is witnessing two potentially game-changing strategies: Retail chain Target is opening smaller stores in urban locations to attract younger customers, betting big on that “flexible-format,” as is apparent from a Manhattan store opening announcement in October. Also diversifying its mix is online retailer Amazon, which plans to expand its grocery business with convenience stores and curbside pickups, according to an October 12 Wall Street Journal report. .... 

Target’s move could turn out to be a brainwave that attracts more than just millennials living in urban America, according to Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader. The smaller stores could also occasionally send those same customers to larger Target locations in suburban malls for larger shipping trips, and attract suburbanites who work in cities to drop by the downtown Targets on their drive back home, he says. ... " 

Target Tests Vertical Farms in/on Stores

Interesting play that uses existing real estate footprints.  Attract new consumers.  Place to test other technologies like drones and robotics to test sensor and labor alternatives?

Target to test vertical farms in stores  Retailwire, discussion. by Tom Ryan

Target is looking to shorten the distance from farm to plate with a planned test of vertical farms, an agricultural technique that involves growing plants and vegetables indoors in climatized conditions.

The initiative, to take place within select U.S. stores, is part of ongoing research and development being pursued by Target’s Food + Future CoLab, a collaboration with the MIT Media Lab and Ideo launched last November that has been exploring urban farming, food transparency and food innovation.

According to Business Insider, tests of the vertical farms could begin in spring 2017. If the trials succeed, Target’s stores will likely be filled with growing leafy greens, the most common stock for vertical farming at present. Potatoes, beetroot and zucchini could potentially be made available as well. MIT could give Target access to ancient seeds for rare tomatoes or peppers. .... " 

Target Piloting AddStructure

Retailers responding to devices like the Amazon Echo with natural Language interaction.  Looking for more details. In Retailwire: 

Target piloting Amazon Alexa voice search rival  by Dan O’Shea

Target and three other retailers have partnered with natural language processing (NLP) startup AddStructure to roll out what an AddStructure co-founder describes as a “white-label” spin on Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant, according to a Chicago Tribune report.

( Addstructure: Help your customers find the products they are looking for on any channel: Organic. Desktop. Mobile. App. Voice. Messengers. Intelligent Chat Bot )

Chosen in June to participate in the Target + TechStars accelerator program, AddStructure has already worked with Target on a six-to-nine-month pilot program and is set to begin similar pilots next month with L’Oreal, Under Armour and the online antiques marketplace, 1stdibs.

“We’ve always been focused on language, so how are people searching for things, what are the priorities around different products through analysis of user reviews,” AddStructure co-founder Will Underwood told the Trib. “Now it’s just about using that knowledge of natural language to allow people to interact.”

During the accelerator program, AddStructure got to work with a Target.com vice president as a mentor and collaborated with three departments within Target to learn more about integrating new technology into a retailer and perfecting its product.   ... " 

Wal-Mart Superstore of the Future

A look at a Wal-mart Superstore of the future.  Slide show of mostly redesigns. Not too unexpected regarding technology involved. Apparently largely as a response to Target redesigns.

Target Selling Connected Health

Interesting piece in Retailwire, with discussion.  Consider if these could ultimately create a digital hub, connected to health practitioners at the store, live those we are starting to see at Pharmacies.

" ... Now Target is making a wellness move that appears to be further carving out the healthy niche it sees itself filling. The chain is debuting a portion of the store called the "Connected Health" section.

The retailer is promoting two fitness-tracking products from health device company Qardio as the flagship products of the new section, according to Digital Trends. The devices, QardioArm (a wireless blood pressure tracker) and QardioBase (a wireless smart-scale) are not new to Target's shelves, but customers will now be able to try out the devices in the store's new section. ... " 

Looking at Target's Future Lab

Continue to be a student of spaces devoted to innovation.  See my tag links below for years of looking into the space, including a decade plus of my work in CPG and retail spaces.  Contact me for more, glad to participate.    The space below collaborates with groups we also worked with.

In Retailwire:
In its collaboration with global design firm IDEO and MIT Media Lab, Target's Food + Future coLab last week unveiled its first two innovations with a focus on food transparency.

Opened in January near MIT's campus in Cambridge, MA, "the bustling lab full of bioengineers, students, nutritionists and farmers [are] hard at work testing big ideas about the future of food," Target said on its Bullseye View blog. The multi-year collaboration, first unveiled last November, is concentrating efforts on urban farming, food transparency and authenticity, supply chain and health.

The first of the two ideas developed by the team focused on food labeling. The line, Good & Gather, displays ingredients on the front of packaging rather than in fine print on the back. .... " 

Big Analytics Driving Grocery

Interesting view of Grocery and Big Data.  The complexity of grocery and its data, driving the utilization of the aisle.

Consumer buying behavior: How grocery stores can tap big data to meet shopper demand by Barbara Thau

It's no secret that online shopping continues to redefine consumer buying behavior. While supermarkets have been late to the online party, that's now changing rapidly.

Last month, Target began testing a same-day grocery delivery service with Instacart. Meanwhile, Amazon has been piloting AmazonFresh groceries in select markets to gauge consumer buying behavior, while also testing consumers' appetite for innovations such as Amazon Dash, a Wi-Fi connected device that allows shoppers to order products with a click of a button.

By definition, groceries are a complex business, as food is perishable and storage logistics are complex. However, food is also a high-frequency purchase that's largely insulated from economic downturns. As competition heats up in the grocery aisle, big data is gaining traction as the tool supermarkets need to counter rivals and remain profitable. ... ' 

Mobile Beacons

In Adage: More updates on beacons.   They continue to expand.   " .... Mobile Beacons to Explode, but They Aren't a Silver Bullet for Tracking ... Macy's, McDonalds and Target Have Lately Signed New Beacon Contracts ... " 

Mobile is the New Front Door

From Think with Google:

For Target, Mobile Is the New Front Door
Today, 98% of Target's customers shop digitally, and three-quarters of them start their experience on a mobile device. Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer Casey Carl talks about engaging guests wherever they want to shop, and how mobile became the retailer's new front door to the store.

"There's no longer a delineation between how our guests live life and how they shop; they just shop whenever they have time. They want to flow seamlessly across all of our channels ... and we've got to make that happen by having the right underlying architecture." —Casey Carl, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer for Target  ... '