Target

Google is wading deeper into the growing pool of online shopping competitors, testing out its ability to provide customers with same-day delivery. This week the company launched a small pilot program in the Bay Area called Google Shopping Express. The service allows online shoppers to order from name-brand stores like Target and Toys"R"Us and have those goods delivered the same day. The service, for now, is free to consumers. Google will make money by taking a commission from the retailer.

The path to operational agility hasn't yet been forged. Lots of companies are investing in technology to get them there, but most are making a fundamental IT mistake. They're trying to solve the agility challenge with the same business software they've been using for the past 30 years. Unfortunately, traditional business software systems come up short when it comes to supply chain orchestration on a global scale. Those systems were designed to work within a single company, not between the different companies and partners which make up a global supply chain.

In this month's edition of SmartBear Software's Retailer Web Performance Report Card, I once again analyze and highlight recent website performance for the top 50 retailers. With the help of SmartBear's AlertSite, I've looked at website response times, accounting for elapsed time for all website objects including images, JavaScript, Flash and third-party objects, collected from various dispersed locations in the first two weeks of March. I also looked at the all-important website availability percentage that measures site accessibility. The lucky (and not so lucky) highlighted retailers this month are Target and J.Crew, respectively.

Mobile technology has empowered consumers to expect to have the information they need, and to consummate the transactions they want, whenever and wherever they are. This ability to have instantaneous access to product information and pricing can be of tremendous benefit to consumers and retailers alike, but in the form of "showrooming" it's become many retailers’ worst nightmare.

This issue's Check it Out profiles a company that couldn't be more aptly named for the department: Coupons at Checkout. Yes, check out what this company is doing on retailers' checkout pages. OK, enough with the bad forced puns and onto the serious business.

In the largest showrooming study to date, Placed identified Best Buy and Target as high-risk retailers for Amazon.com customers to view offline and buy online. Surprisingly, Best Buy and Target weren't the most at risk for showroomers taking over their aisles. The results from the Placed: Aisle to Amazon Study found that consumers who showroom and then purchase on Amazon are 20 percent more likely to visit Best Buy and 15 percent more likely to visit Target than average, but Bed Bath & Beyond, PetSmart and Toys"R"Us all face greater risk.

Make no mistake, showrooming is crushing brick-and-mortar, increasingly pushing in-store sales online, where they're almost always inevitably cheaper. With online retail spend growing 16 percent last year, and retailers like Best Buy and Target recently creating Amazon.com price-matching policies, there's no denying the trend.

Target is dangling JT and some swimsuits to get its sexy back. Sunday night's Grammy Awards wasn't just the return of Justin Timberlake. The buzz from the "SexyBack" singer also rubbed off on Target, which rolled out a commercial during the awards touting an exclusive version of JT's first album in six years, "The 20/20 Experience." The retailer also will announce Tuesday that it's teaming with Sports Illustrated to present six pages of ads in this year's swimsuit issue. Target also launched an exclusive spring design collection from Prabal Gurung over the weekend.

Target has debuted six brands that will be available exclusively online. The one-stop shop is not taking its e-commerce site Target.com for granted. While continuing to draw people into its physical stores with sales and other incentives, the retailer acknowledges the need to change as shoppers' habits change. Target divisional merchandise manager Theresa Schmidt recognizes that consumers are going online more often to shop from the comfort of their own homes, and the need to not only draw new consumers to its online site but also retain existing online consumers...

Target's holiday gift to you — price-matching with major online retailers — has been reactivated and extended indefinitely. Does that make Target the hands-down choice if you're determined to get the best deal? Not necessarily. Let's take a look at the new policy.