Retail

How Target Is Trying to Fend Off Amazon

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.

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