TORONTO – After a fumbled launch last year, Target Canada has come to terms with some of the company’s mistakes and is making changes the U.S. retail giant hopes will undo the damage.
Whether it was photos of empty shelves posted by Canadians across social media platforms or prices that were higher in comparison with its U.S. stores, the company says it knows work needs to be done to repair Target’s reputation with Canadians.
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Newly appointed president for Canada, Mark Schindele, said Tuesday that Target Corp. was too ambitious when it launched 124 stores and three distribution centres in Canada over a 12-month period starting in March 2013.
“If I could build a time machine and go back, we would’ve liked to have a slower approach,” Schindele said.
Now that Target executives have been able to survey the results — and examine where it fell short — Schindele said he believes the company will be able to impress Canadians with prices that beat its competitors and exclusive products that will bring people back into its stores.
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When it comes to empty shelves, Schindele said the company was moving too quickly to push inventory into its stores, which had “downstream implications” and left the company struggling to forecast when it needed to refill best-selling items.
Target also didn’t have the experience in Canada to determine which locations would sell out of popular seasonal items like barbecues, though Schindele said over the past few quarters it has come to understand the needs of each store much better.
New price match policy
Over the coming months, many of Target’s plans will take shape, including a new price-match policy designed to make it easier for shoppers to take advantage of cheaper prices at competitors.
In addition to weekly fliers, Target will now honour price matches with several major online retailers like Amazon, and make it easier for people to claim lower prices at the cash register, rather than having to walk to the customer service counter.
A broader line of exclusive products will stretch from the apparel section, with agreements to carry more lines of Roots’ Beaver Canoe clothing and a wider selection of maternity items. Target will also begin to stock plus-sized clothes for the first time in Canada.
While these are just some of the changes, Target still needs to win over shoppers who may feel burned by negative experiences over the past year. Schindele said he’s confident that more exclusives and better pricing will help shift sentiment in Target’s favour.
“It all starts with having the right content in the store, being priced right and the right inventory levels,” he said.
“That’s what will change our story.”
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