What to Expect from Target’s Basic CRM Practices

Welcome (back) to PostFunnel’s weekly brand analysis, where we rate a significant brand’s basic CRM practices according to our version of the 7 CRM commandments every brand must obey these days.

As the 8th largest retailer in the U.S., how do you think they score?

Chances are pretty good, but make sure you check how they rank against the other 15 brands we rated till now.

Here it goes:

1. Be Transparent 10/10

As Target is an essential retailer, sales have increased for the company throughout the pandemic. The brand offers safe, easy, and convenient ways to shop both online and instore – across dozens of categories.

CNBC recently reported that Target’s profits jumped 80%, while same-store sales set record highs, and online and at-store sales climbed by 24.3%.

“Throughout the year and over the last few years, we’ve built tremendous trust with our community,” CEO Brian Cornell said. Relationship with customers has been one of the biggest drivers behind our success.”

Also, a couple of months ago – Target announced its “Industry-Leading Investments in Pay & Benefits,” with the following statement on Facebook:

“Today we’re announcing that we’re permanently increasing our starting pay to $15 per hour for all U.S. team members starting July 5, plus additional benefits.”

Their willingness to be open about how they are prioritizing customers and employees is what’s behind the 8 of 10 score they get here.

2. Incentives and Perks 7/10

On the brand’s homepage, we were presented with the following promotional offers on various categories:

A few more scrolls down the HP, we were offered additional incentives and perks for shopping with the brand:

Finally, we saw this 25% off discount when adding highlighters to our cart:

We would have liked to see a welcome offer or perhaps a special VIP customer promotion (frequent buyer) from the retail giant as these are great retention and CRM tactics. But, as expected, Target is not saving on savings.

3. Be Relevant 10/10

For starters, Target’s curbside pick-up service jumping by more than 700% shows how the brand has been adjusting to the NN (New Normal) and accommodating to customer demand and needs RN.

Back-to-school shopping is happening right now, and of course, it’s all over the HP:

Also, the ability to “choose order pick up or drive up for easy ordering” are two great ways to offer customers what they need to shop at ease:

This summer, Target expanded its same-day pick-up service by adding fresh and frozen grocery items to 1,500 stores, and at many stores, the retailer expanded the number of parking spaces for Drive Up.

We never expected them to fall short on this commandment.

4. Be Helpful 10/10

Target has an entire dedicated coronavirus response page on its websitem which details some of the following measures the brand is taking to be helpful:

• Increased cleanliness
• Monitoring & metering guest access
• Quantity limits on in-demand items
• Plexiglass shields at checkout lanes
• Masks available & required

In addition, the brand writes this message to customers:

“At Target, we’re committed to helping the families and communities we serve in good times and bad. We’ve taken a number of steps in support of our team and guests, with increased safety measures and operational changes. And, we’ll continue to do all we can to help navigate these uncertain times.”

Also, this $10 million commitment to addressing systematic racial issues shows strong and ethical brand values:

5. Realtime Personalization 6/10

Classic upsell techniques were clearly implemented when adding an item to our cart, as Target presented us with this “frequently bought together” items:

And when scrolling all the way down, more product recommendations and featured products related to our search appeared, further personalizing our shopping experience with the brand.

No instant realtime retargeting efforts were initiated by the brand off-platform, however – costing them 4 points here.

6. Master UX 10/10

Target is the only brand that we’ve analyzed so far to be offering a) so many pick-up and delivery options and b) the ability to easily view, access, and choose the option at the click of a button.

How the pick-up options are placed on the site (as shown in the side banner below) is super helpful and easily accessible for customers, too:

We were also happy to see the “Guest Ratings & Reviews” set up in an easily understandable bar chart format that’s quick for the customer to view and/or rate:

Finally, at the bottom of the brand’s HP, Target offers a gallery of featured category selections – completing a neat, comfortable shopping experience.

7. Leverage Social Media 8/10

With over 24 million likes on Facebook, Target posts all sorts of content from food and memes to showing BLM support and addressing long-standing systemic issues.

We noticed that in a few of the brand’s “back-to-school” promotional ads, they feature adorable children with Down Syndrome, disabilities, and special needs too:

Target on Instagram also posts in an acceptable frequency (almost every day), offering plenty of engaging content for all kinds of customers.

We didn’t, however, see the brand use the Instastory feature much – too bad for the Instagrammers who enjoy it!

Target is active on Twitter as well, offering lots of witty content and posts that show support for a number of issues at hand, including hurricane Laura in a recent tweet:

Way to go at addressing and catering to all types of customers on their choice of social media channel. They don’t get a perfect score because we didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

**

Overall, Target is getting a 61/70 here (87%), placing them 3rd!

Here are the full rankings of all the brands we analyzed to date:

1. Lowe’s 90%
2. Petco 90%
3. Target 87%
4. Uniqlo 86%
5. West Elm 81%
6. Best Buy 78%
7. Etsy 76%
8. The Body Shop 74%
9. Gymshark 73%
10. Tommy Hilfiger 70%
11. Walgreens 70%
12. Fiverr 67%
13. Next 63%
14. Patagonia 61%
15. Burberry 60%
16. COS 57%

We publish a new analysis every week, so watch this space for more brand analyses coming your way!