Target Aims At Web

Minneapolis — For No. 2 discount chain Target, the Internet represents "a very important part of our long-term strategy."

So said Target vice chairman Jerry Storch at the retailer's biennial CE vendor meeting here last month.

In a presentation on corporate growth opportunities, Storch told suppliers that Target.com is already the fourth largest retail Web site and is growing at a 100 percent per year clip.

Target plans to further fuel that growth by linking the parent company's store and catalog divisions on an online portal dubbed Target.common (see TWICE, April 1, p. 14). The portal will also be linked to Target's cyber store at Amazon.com, which went live last fall and whose "presence" will be expanded, Storch said.

The Internet also "serves many purposes across the business spectrum" beyond direct sales, Storch noted. Of particular interest is "guest relationship management," which will allow Target to "treat [customers] as individuals" and create opportunities to "up-sell and cross-sell."

By employing the Target VISA smart card and Amazon's proprietary personalization technology, the company plans to cull "a detailed view of guest behavior" in order to target them with emails, electronic coupons and other personalized offers.