How Target Is Trying to Fend Off Amazon

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By Trey Thoelcke Published
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Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) isn’t about to let Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) keep nibbling away its market share, not without fighting back. To that end, the Minneapolis-based variety store operator announced Thursday that it will vastly expand the goods available to order by subscription.

The free subscription program allows customers to schedule regular shipments of goods in four-, six-, eight-, 10- or 12-week installments. Target began the service last September by offering 150 baby care products. Now around 1,600 items will be available, including beauty products, pet supplies and home office supplies.

But that’s not all. Target recently added a 5% discount on items ordered through the program, and customers get another 5% discount if they pay with a Target-branded card.

Back in October, the company also started allowing people to order and pay for goods online, and then pick them up at a participating Target store. About 60,000 products can now be ordered online, and the pickup program accounts for more than 10% of Target’s online business. However, competitors Sears and Walmart have offered this service for several years.

Strong demand prompted the expansion of Target’s subscription service. That is good news for the retailer that is still trying to get past the massive customer data breach late last year. Shares are still down more than 10% since mid-November.

Thursday afternoon, shares traded relatively flat to Wednesday’s close of $59.91. The 52-week range is $54.66 to $73.50.

READ ALSO: Nine Retailers Closing the Most Stores

Photo of Trey Thoelcke
About the Author Trey Thoelcke →

Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.

Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.

Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.

Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.

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