Target to Merge Cartwheel Into its Main App

Target’s mobile app strategy will undergo a significant change, starting this summer. The retailer announced it will soon combine the functionality of its Cartwheel savings app with its main shopping app. The Cartwheel app will be shut down. The Target app will also receive a notable upgrade this year, adding support for an indoor map that shows a user's location in-store, along with nearby Cartwheel deals, in addition to support for mobile payments. According to Target, the decision to merge its apps into one is a result of customer feedback. Shoppers wanted an easier way to access all of what Target has to offer from one destination, not two.

Total Retail's Take: The popular Cartwheel app has often been cited by other retailers as a leading example of mobile simplifying the shopping experience for consumers. Cartwheel users add deals to the in-app shopping list, then show their barcode at checkout to save on the items they’ve purchased. By integrating with Target's main app — and its support for mobile payments — this process will become even easier. Shoppers will be able to both save and pay by having barcode in the app scanned just once at the point of sale. Having the two apps merged into one just makes sense for consumers, and in all likelihood for Target as well. Managing a single app — and making updates to it — figures to create efficiencies for the retailer.