Target To Test Same-Day Delivery In Three Select Markets
By Hannah Ash, contributing writer
Lately, retail innovations largely focusing on one thing: fulfillment. Malls are scrambling to reinvent themselves as part retail store, part fulfillment centers. To push to bring fulfillment to the next level stems largely from mass efforts toward offering same-day delivery to customers. With the expansion of courier services such as Instacart and Google Shopping Express, in addition to direct retailer same-day fulfillment initiatives from Amazon, major retailers that aren’t coming up with their own same-day fulfillment initiatives may fear being left in the dust. While Home Depot and Walmart, among other large retailers, work on their own same-day initiatives, Target is taking a large step forward: it has rolled out same-day delivery in three select markets.
Amid Q1 reports that the retail giant’s profits dropped by 16 percent, Target does not appear to be letting go of the retail battle too easily. With its same-day delivery, Target is taking a stand against Amazon - and all others who are planning to enter this particular fulfillment game of same day ordering, same day delivery. Target’s same-day delivery will launch in June of this year in select stores for the following markets: Boston, Miami, and Minneapolis. The same-day shipping service will be labeled as ‘rush delivery’; for a $10 service fee, customers who place orders prior to the cut-off time of 1:30pm will be able to get ordered items delivered same-day.
Jason Goldberger, senior VP of Target.com and Target mobile, indicated that the introduction of ‘rush delivery’ is in line with the retailer’s overall omni-channel goals. “This is all about delivering products and services more flexibly and serving guests on their terms by providing more options. With these new services and tests like ‘Rush Delivery,’ we’re gauging guest appetite and building internal capabilities and technologies that will make Target a leading omni channel retailer,” Goldberger comments. Similar to Amazon’s beta testing in Los Angeles, and Google’s testing in the Silicon Valley area, Target plans to test ‘rush delivery’ in these three locations before launching an expansion.