Target makes same-day delivery move

Following its acquisition late last year of membership-based grocery marketplace Shipt, Target is to begin offering same-day delivery from stores in Alabama and Florida.

The initiative spans 57 stores across both states. Around 50,000 products, including a significant number of fresh foods that weren’t previously available on Target.com, have been uploaded onto Shipt’s app. The latter will hire 10,000 new ‘shoppers’, bringing its total to more than 30,000.

“Our teams moved at lightning speed to get Target up and running on Shipt’s platform in less than eight weeks,” says John Mulligan, Chief Operating Officer, Target. “And we’re not stopping there, we’ll keep expanding, with plans to offer Shipt’s services at nearly half our stores by the end of first quarter, and the majority of stores by the 2018 holiday season, making Target the first retailer to be able to offer same-day delivery in all major markets across the country.”

Some good analysis over at IGD’s website. Check it out here.

The Shipt deal, at $550 million one of the largest acquisitions in Target’s history, is part of a supply chain/digital strategy that has also included launching Target Restock and Drive Up, acquiring Grand Junction, a last-mile transportation technology company, and expanding ship-from-store capabilities to more than 1,400 stores nationwide.