Target announces holiday-season shopping and shipping plans
Target has announced that it will be repeating its holiday-season offer of free shipping and returns on all online purchases in the US. The offer will start from Sunday (1 November) and run through till Christmas Day (25 December).
Walmart, in contrast, has indicated that this year it will stick with its regular requirement of a $50 minimum spend before offering free shipping. Fernando Madeira, president and CEO of Walmart, told US reporters that in practice the majority of customers will qualify for the free shipping anyway because their Christmas shopping will exceed the minimum spend – and if it is less they can opt for the free collect-in-store option.
In a statement issued yesterday (29 October), Target also reported that it was rolling out a number of other delivery options.
According to the company statement: “New this holiday season, Target will offer international shopping and shipping to more than 200 countries and territories. In partnership with Borderfree, Target.com will offer guests the ability to pay in almost 60 different currencies and have their orders shipped to themselves or to family and friends who live outside the U.S.”
In addition, from next week, the Curbside pickup service will expand from 21 to 121 Target stores. The service, which allows customers to complete their “Target run” without ever leaving the car, will now be in all Philadelphia and San Francisco Bay area stores, and in select stores in the New York-New Jersey and Chicago areas. Also starting next week, Target is expanding Instacart, the on-demand grocery delivery service from Minneapolis, where it was first piloted, to San Francisco.
