Target Celebrating First Successful Year Cartwheel
By Megan Zielinski, contributing writer
This month, Target is celebrating the first year of Cartwheel, a highly-interactive, customer-favorite app, with up to 7.7 million users saving over $84 million in Target stores in just 360 days since its launch.
With Cartwheel, Target’s mobile coupon-clipping app, users can browse through outstanding deals on over hundreds of items including clothing, electronics, baby products, specific categories such as, Healthy Living, Pet Love, Top 25 Grocery, and more allows for a more refined, simplified search. Cartwheel’s integration with Facebook enables users to share their favorite offers to their friends that are also using the convenient app. Friends can see what other friends are doing on Cartwheel, and what offers they will be saving on at their next shopping trip. Users collect badges by completing certain tasks—the “Star Collector” badge can be unlocked by claiming an offer in the “Collections” category, sharing particular products to Facebook friends is another badge-earning opportunity. Shoppers redeem exclusive Cartwheel offers with the more badges they bank. Once users have purchased their offers in-store, the cashier will scan a unique barcode on their mobile phone or printed from a computer. Just like coupons, the dollars and cents are automatically adjusted for each product, giving customers a final total of how much they saved on their printed receipt. While most stores only permit a one-time use for coupons, deals on Cartwheel products can be used up to 6 times per day, or until it expires or is removed. Cartwheel savings can be stacked-up along with manufacturer coupons, Target coupons, and the 5 percent discount from using the Target Red Card—saving customers even more.
“Millions of guests have fallen in love with Cartwheel,” says Casey Carl, president of omni-channel at Target. “But we’re not standing still; we listen to feedback from guests and act on it to continually improve our digital offerings.” Target plans to unit Target.com and Cartwheel, with testing starting at the end of the month, including five Cartwheel offers available in-store and online—one of the most requested features is connecting Target.com with Cartwheel—granting online shoppers with all the savings the app provides for in-store purchases.
In celebration of the first birthday, Cartwheel will reveal the winning offer that received the most votes from members, as they had the choice of 6 deals from 15 percent off of electronics to 50 percent off of Target café foods. Users also have the chance to earn the birthday badge, shopping with Cartwheel from July 13 through July 19. A big birthday party will take place in all Super Target stores on July 13, with app demonstrations and handing out cake.