How Target plans to win with smaller formats

Minneapolis-based Target Corp.’s small-store format is giving the big-box retailer a serious advantage over Walmart and Amazon. 

According to Inc.com,  the company’s smaller store formats give it the advantage of getting closer to the consumer, as well as being able to make the stores the center of its delivery network, which is something neither Amazon nor Walmart can match in urban locations. 

The company recently announced that it is expanding its “highly productive” smaller format stores to three additional college campuses, bringing its total to 23 university-located stores.

Target’s chairman and CEO, Brian Cornell, announced in a fourth quarter 2018 conference call that the company’s new store locations are at the University of Kentucky (a 20,000-square-foot store), Michigan State University (a 22,000-square-foot store) and University of Washington (a 21,000-square-foot store). 

The new smaller format stores are incremental to Target’s expansion strategy, according to Cornell, as the company reveals that it is setting its focus on locations ranging from urban neighborhoods to college campuses, with the company hoping to open about 30 of the small stores annually over the next several years.

Target’s college stores — averaging around 20,000 square feet — are “designed for quick and convenient trips, and stocked with locally relevant products at affordable prices,” according to a news release.

To read the Inc.com article, click here.