Target is dangling a new perk to get shoppers to swing by its stores: customers can make returns without leaving their car.
The curbside-returns service, which began last week at roughly a quarter of Target’s nearly 2,000 stores nationwide, will be available across the chain by the end of summer.
Target is sweetening its curbside-pickup service, Drive Up, to attract and retain customers as the retailer braces for a potential sales slowdown and tries to hang on to pandemic-fueled gains. Total annual revenue grew by about $31 billion – or nearly 40% – from fiscal 2019 to 2022.
Now, as shoppers become more budget conscious and buy fewer discretionary items, Target said it expects comparable sales to range from a low single-digit decline to a low single-digit increase this fiscal year. At an investor day in February, it projected full-year earnings per share of between $7.75 and $8.75, below Wall Street’s expectations of $9.23 per share, according to StreetAccount estimates.
The company hopes convenient perks like curbside returns will boost customer loyalty and jolt sales.
“Any time we remove friction from our guest experience it benefits the guests and benefits Target because they deepen their relationship with us,” Chief Stores Officer Mark Schindele said. “We’ve shown that with Drive Up overall. Guests try that service, they love it and then they shop our stores more often.”
Curbside pickup became a bigger sales driver for retailers’ e-commerce businesses, especially as shoppers tried to avoid crowds during the Covid pandemic. For some shoppers, the habit has stuck as work and home schedules are fuller and commutes are back — and retailers including Target and rival Walmart now aim to capitalize on that.
Click-and-collect, a term used to describe buying online and picking up purchases curbside or in store, grew from 6% of overall e-commerce sales in the U.S. in 2019 to 11% in 2022, according to data from Euromonitor, a market research firm.
Delivery still accounts for the majority of online sales, but click-and-collect drove about $114 billion of sales in 2022 — a jump from $36 billion in 2019, according to Euromonitor.
In the U.S., the vast majority of click-and-collect comes from curbside pickups, said Bob Hoyler, industry manager for retail research at Euromonitor.
The market research firm anticipates click-and-collect sales in dollars will grow by 8% this year, compared with 2% for delivery. The growth will be fueled by consumers who opt for curbside pickup to avoid delivery fees or shipping minimums at a time of heightened price sensitivity, Hoyler said.
Target debuted Drive Up in 2017 as a test in Minneapolis, where the company is based. It expanded the service to stores across all 50 states in 2019. It added fresh and frozen groceries in 2020, and tacked on wine and beer the following year.
Last year, the retailer expanded the service to allow shoppers to order a Starbucks drink to retrieve when they pick up their curbside order. The…
Read More: Target rolls out curbside returns as sales growth slows