How to win the digital shelf on Target.com por Shazia Amin

Target hit the bullseye when it came to nailing their omnichannel strategy during the e-commerce boom of the pandemic. In 2020 Target’s CEO Brian Cornell reported that three years ago the firm committed to spending $7 billion to overhaul its supply chain, invest in digital and reinvent the in-store experience. This included expansion of its curbside, in-store pickup and same-day delivery services. The investment paid off. In 2020, the big box retailer broke into the top 10 list of US e-commerce retailers, ranking eight in terms of sales share, up from 11th place a year prior.

“What would it take to combine the hallmarks of the physical experience, discovery, inspiration and service with the ease, convenience and personalization made possible through digital? In an age of AI and robotics, where do people fit in? When everyone's talking endless aisles, what's the role of curation? In an on-demand world, could digital ever become more than a drag on the P&L? There were lots of theories, but nobody had the answers. And there certainly wasn’t a playbook. So, we started writing our own. We set off on a different path. We used our purpose as a guide and the rest is now history. Today, nobody's doing what Target is doing, nobody. Target is a category of one.”

- Brian Cornell, Target CEO

Target’s e-commerce performance continues to grow and shows no signs of slowing down. Target reported in its full-year 2021 earnings report that total sales had grown to more than $27 billion since 2019, including $13 billion from digital sales. In March 2022 Target announced plans to invest up to $5 billion to continue scaling its operations by investing in physical stores, digital experiences, fulfillment capabilities, and supply chain capacity that further differentiate their retailer offering and drive continued omnichannel growth.

Today, Target operates over 1900 stores in the USA with plans to open approximately 30 more in 2022. An incredible 75% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a Target store. For brands, winning on Target requires an omnichannel strategy that puts your products at the forefront of the shopper experience. In this retailer deep dive we show you how to maximize your visibility on Target.com and cultivate an online presence that stands out against your competitors and Target’s own brand labels.

Know Your Retailer: decoding Target’s algorithm

Winning on Target.com is all about mastering the two fundamental rules for increasing e-commerce sales: 

1. Increase traffic to your product pages
2. Create product pages that convert 

Getting Traffic on Target

In order for people to view your products on Target, they need to be able to find them. 

• Are your products in stock in the first place? 
• Can you be found through Target’s category taxonomy? 
• Can you be found on search? 
• Are you showing up for all the correct filters? 
  
  

Availability: Be there for your shopper - everywhere

People can only buy your products if they’re available to purchase in the first place. At an omnichannel giant like Target, this requires optimizing local fulfillment opportunities with the retailer to ensure products can be fulfilled at the ZIP code level.  Target’s website is geared towards getting shoppers products as quickly and efficiently as possible, flagging products that can be picked up in store “within 2 hours” with a “Pick it up” button. If your product is unavailable at those key ZIP codes, you stand to miss out on a huge number of sales from the people who want the quick fix, store pick-up option.  

Target SEO: Debunking Target.com’s search algorithm

Influential ranking factors on Target.com: 

• Keyword relevance - Target’s algorithm is reasonably sophisticated and is able to map certain synonyms (“women’s sweater” vs “ladies sweater”) so an exact keyword match isn’t necessarily required. 
• Ratings and reviews - more reviews correlates to higher search rank.
• In store availability 
• Number of images on product page 
• Keywords in title and description - use a mix of keywords in the description to maximize visibility 
• Private labels - Target often prioritizes its own brand labels - more on this below.

Anatomy of a strong product page on Target.com: 

Target search hack: Target’s assortment is huge, for example, a search for “sweater womens” returns 702 results. Shoppers narrow their search by using Target’s extensive filtering options. Make sure you’re present in all the right filters and in all the right categories.

Leveraging Paid Media on Target

Target’s omnichannel transformation included an overhaul of its media ecosystem, Roundel, which “leverages Target’s shopper insights to create personalized ad campaigns” that can run on Target’s website, social networks, and hundreds of other 3rd party sites in their publisher network. As such, the potential for brands to gain visibility through Target’s paid media options is vast. Target’s retail media includes: 

• Sponsored ads to rank higher in search
• Display ads above or to the side of search results
• Video ads in search results 
• Sponsoring competitor brand’s keywords
• Retargeting ads on third party sites
  
  Source: Pacvue

Target advertising hack: Start with search placement ads. According to Target, 40% of Target.com visitors use the search functionality and shoppers are 2x more likely to convert when they interact with search. This makes search a prime opportunity to capture your audience’s attention.

Source: Pacvue

Digital ad agency Pacvue which supports sponsored ads on Target.com and the Target app via the Criteo Retail Media Platform sites some impressive stats

• ‍13% CTR: Baby product manufacturer ran a 3 month program and saw over 1.5M impressions with a 13% CTR
• ‍80k Units Sold: CPG snack food brand with a 3 month campaign saw over 14M impressions with a sustained ROAS over 1,300%‍
• 100M+ Impressions: Audio brand achieved 4X their ROAS goals, with ROAS of >700% over a six-month period‍
• 800% ROAS: Toy brand increased their investment across multiple SKU sets and exceeded 300k Ad Clicks
  
  

How to compete with Target private label brands

Target has been steadily increasing its merchandise offering through private labels and brand partnerships. In 2021, approximately one-third of the company's sales were related to its owned or exclusive brands. Target’s success with private labels comes down to their offering which shirked the usual perception that own brand products are plain, cheap, and poor quality. Through its private labels, Target has evolved its “cheap chic” image, so much so that many consumers began calling the retailer “Tar-zhay”, a pseudo-French pronunciation suggesting high quality. 

We saw above how Target prioritizes their private label in search. There’s still plenty of space for branded products, but winning on Target means creating a compelling case that stands apart from private labels:

• Build stories about your brand that challenge Target’s private labels.
• Remember content is everything. Tell your story with great content including images and product descriptions. Create compelling content that convinces customers why they should choose you. 
• Use keywords to your advantage. Outrank Target private labels by creating more detailed keyword-rich content that not only helps to tell your story, but also target the search terms that shoppers are using on Target.
  
  

Measuring Digital Shelf Performance on Target.com

As always with a retailer like Target we recommend having a measurement strategy in place so you can easily monitor performance on the key drivers of traffic and conversion. 

• Availability - Are your products in stock? Can you anticipate stock issues at Target on the ZIP code level ahead of peak occasions? 
• Category presence - Are you showing up in the right categories and subcategories on Target? 
• Search performance - How many products are appearing in the Top 3 or the Top 10 organic search results? 
• Granular keyword data - Which products are ranking for specific keywords and how high do they rank? 
• Content - Do products contain the target keywords in the title and description? 

Conclusion

As with any channel, winning on Target requires you to adapt your strategy and optimize your listing based on the unique sales environment Target offers:

• Understanding how search works on Target and how best to optimize your listing
• Getting distribution right to optimize the growing local fulfillment opportunities
• Making the best advertising decisions based on Target’s options, competitor activity and in line with your overall strategy
• Having a strategy to compete with Target’s private labels, and of course…
• Measuring your brand’s performance on Target.
  
  

If you need further help to activate or improve sales on Target, we’d be happy to arrange a free consultation during which we can help you explore ideas to win in your category.