It’s that time of year again! Christmas music is already playing on the radio and retailers are bringing out their seasonal decorations, hoping for a bountiful sales bump like the 3.6% jump the NRF predicted across retail this quarter. But with online spending poised to match in-store spending for the first time, and 44% of online shopping searches starting at Amazon, such good news from the NRF is tempered by concerns about bringing bodies into stores. As one Deloitte analyst noted, “The big thing our clients are struggling with is foot traffic.”
So while Target’s CEO optimistically stated, “I think we are entering the holiday season with a consumer who is feeling good about the state of play,” one question remains: How to draw shoppers into brick and mortar stores when online offers convenience and selection they cannot match?
“A Unique, Differentiated Experience”
Like other retailers, Target is investing in distinguishing itself from competitors, brick and mortar and online alike. “We’ve got to deliver a unique, differentiated experience,” CEO Brian Cornell said. Oftentimes, this unique experience comes down to carrying something the competition does not—exclusive products available only to Target shoppers.
Of course, exclusive products at Target are nothing new; they have been offering affordable fashion lines from top-tier designers for years. Yet this holiday season Target will offer 1,800 exclusive products, up 15% from last year, across multiple categories including toys, music, beauty, and apparel. The company has an eye for what is, or may well become, popular and aims to secure rights to sell such items exclusively.
A New Hope in Star Wars
One primary category is toys, which makes sense—children often plead for the “it” item and if that item happens to only be sold at Target, well, that’s where Dad must go. And since nothing is bigger than Star Wars these days, Target offers exclusive action figures from the forthcoming Rouge One. In all they have over 100 exclusive toys from the franchise, but that’s not all.
To draw in entire families, not just parents making a quick last-minute toy run, some locations now have life-size, interactive AT-ACT Imperial Walkers for customers to battle with blaster bolts and simulate "defending the galaxy". Such displays, with their potential to draw unexpected customers and even to go viral, were no doubt what their CEO had in mind when he described offering unique, differentiated experiences.
Beyond Star Wars, Target also offers exclusive board games, making waves when it debuted a card version of the popular early 1990s computer game The Oregon Trail, and also debuting retro versions of Hasbro classics such as Monopoly, Clue, and Sorry! Sorry shoppers, these items can only be found at Target.
Music, Beauty, and Exercise
They aren’t just aiming for the young and young at heart with exclusive offers, however. For example, the company peddles innumerable music exclusives, which aren’t quite as exclusive as they sound. Here’s how it works: Target sells exclusive editions of popular albums with 1-3 “bonus songs.” For example, Adele’s insanely popular 25, which normally houses 11 tracks, comes with three additional, “target exclusive” songs. Such exclusives appeal to the completionism instincts of the super fan and associate the store with the day’s most popular musicians.
They are also bringing SoulCycle into the mainstream, offering free classes to customers on select weekends while partnering with SoulCycle to produce and sell an officially licensed, exclusive active wear line. To put it plainly, SoulCyclists are intensely devoted and Target hopes to tap into this fad that is threatening to become a phenomenon.
Further exclusives in health and beauty, beverages, and, of course, fashion round out the only-available-at-Target collection, which the company hopes will turn around their recent sales dips and prove an antidote to legacy retailers’ woes in a “difficult” environment.
