PHOTO GALLERY: Target's New Store Experience

March 21, 2017,
CSNews


First next-gen site will open in Texas in October.
MINNEAPOLIS — The retail channel is changing and Target Corp. is changing along with it.
Speaking at Shoptalk in Las Vegas on March 20, CEO Brian Cornell unveiled the retailer’s plans to reimagine its stores. Target will “spend billions of dollars” on the three-year reimagining and repositioning effort, according to the company.
The changes at the brick-and-mortar level come even as the retailer continues to embrace the digital space.
“Our guests still love shopping in Target stores — we’re known for creating a sense of inspiration and discovery that can’t be replicated online in quite the same way,” Cornell said. “So while we are investing heavily in digital, we’re also doubling down on our stores to offer guests an elevated experience, and at the same time ensuring fast, easy pick up for online orders — giving guests every reason to keep coming to Target.”
This year the retailer will remodel 110 stores, and open 30 new small-format stores to expand its footprint into dense urban neighborhoods, like New York City’s Herald Square, and on college campuses, like the University of Florida, Gainesville.
Looking ahead, in 2018 and 2019, Target will renovate 500 more stores.
Target’s first next-generation store will open in Richmond, Texas, near Houston, in October. According to the company, “this suburban store will be Target’s most ambitious store re-design to-date — it’s designed from the ground up to make Target an easy, more inspiring shopping destination.”
Customers will notice one change immediately upon entering the store. The location will have two entrances: One that inspires with displays of the retailer’s exclusive brands, seasonal moments and more, and a second with a focus on ease with quick order pickup, grab-and-go food, and a wine and beer shop.
At Target’s financial community meeting on Feb. 28, company executives said Target would invest more than $7 billion in capital over the next three years and roughly $1 billion in annual operating profits beginning in 2017, “to grow sales faster, gain market share, adapt to guests’ rapidly changing preferences and give them even more reasons to choose Target.”
Minneapolis-based Target operates 1,806 stores.