Sticking to their 'Expect More, Pay Less' approach to retailing, American giant Target turned up the heat on competitors this week when they announced free shipping and free returns during the back to school season.
The company vowed to further expand their omni-channel offerings back in May, and this new push shows that they're willing to make moves to secure a bigger share of the online market. As noted in this Retail Dive article, the back to school 'season' is the biggest part of the buying season aside from the holidays. It makes perfect sense that the retailer would want to try and have customers form good online buying habits before Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
Target held on to their $50 minimum purchase threshold for free shipping significantly longer than other big chains, which some observers note could be the reason that Target is now racing to make up for lost time.
Despite being a bit slow out of the gate, the company managed to grow their eCommerce business by 30% during 2014. Given that they were coming from behind established retailers like Amazon and growing powerhouse Wal-mart, it will be interesting to see if they can maintain that kind of growth year over year without causing damage to their brick and mortar traffic.
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