Target's Growing Online Portfolio

Target is one of the largest retailers in the United States. The corporation recently published their Q2 2020 financial results, reporting the strongest quarterly sales growth in the company’s history: Comparable sales grew by 24.3 percent year-on-year. Target’s physical stores were responsible for 90% of Q2 sales, but they also play an important role in the fulfillment of digital orders: According to the financial report, stores enable more than three-quarters of Target’s digital sales, thanks to several same-day delivery and click&collect options. And the brick-and-mortar business is likely to see more online competition in the future: Digital sales recorded a plus of an amazing 195% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020.

ecommerceDB.com net sales figures of target.com also prove that Target’s online business is heavy:

When taking a look at the recent target.com sales developments analyzed by ecommerceCB.com1, the figures of the years 2019 and 2020 immediately strike the eye: Net sales are expected to almost double from US$6.6 billion to US$12.5 billion in just one year. Although this is an unprecedented surge, growth rates in the previous years were already solid. Net sales grew by around one third per year between 2017 and 2019. Compared to 2017, when net sales amounted to US$3.9 billion, this year’s net sales are expected to triple.

Target’s delivery options play a key role in the success of their digital sales channels. Taken together, the three same-day services offered by Target grew by a total of 273% year-on-year in Q2 2020. Drive Up, Target’s in-car delivery service, registered by far the highest growth, namely more than 700%. Year-on-year sales fulfilled by Target’s same-day delivery partner Shipt increased by over 350%. Order Pickup, an in-store pickup service which is quite new to the portfolio, grew by over 60% between Q1 and Q2 2020.

1: eCommerceDB.com only includes first-party net sales in their sales calculations of target.com. As Target’s Q2 financial results also include marketplace revenues, growth rates and results for digital sales differ from eCommerceDB.com figures.