Target plans to get to know you better
One of the strengths of Target is that it knows its customers pretty well. The retail giant has long tracked their purchases, looking for clues about other things a shopper might want to buy.
But as good as the company has been on that front, it plans to do even more. Target intends to get much better at learning about customers and use that knowledge to encourage them to spend more.
"Data and analytics is one of the capabilities where we know we need to make up ground quickly," Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer Casey Carl recently told Wall Street analysts. Toward that end, Carl said, Target plans to create an internal center for data analysis. He said the center would yield more personalized email marketing, more tailored promotions and personalized offers delivered through the company's Cartwheel smartphone app.
Cartwheel has some 13 million users, about the population of the state of Illinois.
"We're going to continue to improve on the mobile experience in a number of ways this year — in-store location and navigation capabilities, greater mobile payment integration and testing new technology like
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