Target's Good & Gather central to Q1 sales growth
Digital sales in a COVID-19 world stood out during Target’s first quarter earnings call, highlighting digital comparable sales growth of 141% for the quarter, but the retailer mentioned its store brands too.
Target reported that sales of food and beverage categories increased by more than 20%, Q1, and Brian Cornell, CEO Target, pointed to Good & Gather, saying the store brand was an “important part of that 20% growth. “As we move into the second quarter we will be expanding the number of Good & Gather items. We feel really good about the guest response during the pandemic and we expect that to continue into the balance of the year.”
Target’s Good & Gather brand launched roughly nine months ago and has already been highlighted in earlier quarterly reports for helping to increase sales.
As consumers might have needed to turn toward the private brand during the pandemic, Target is clearly confident in how consumers are taking to the brand to increase output going forward.
As for the retailer’s astounding digital numbers, Target said its digital comparable sales growth accelerated from 33% in February to about 100% in March to 282% in April, for a total first-quarter e-commerce increase of 141%. Target’s same-store sales grew by 10.8% in the first quarter ended May 2, compared to the same period a year prior.
Target said its stores enabled digital volumes totaling more than 80% of the e-comm sales in April, totaling more than $1.1 billion compared with last year. Store fulfillment accounted for more than $950 million of that growth as both same-day services and shipments to guest homes saw significant increases. Its same-day services, including Drive Up and Shipt delivery, grew by 278%.
For more on what Target reported, see coverage in sister publication Progressive Grocer here.