Target to Compete with Amazon

Target is considered by many experts and industry analysts as the leading retailer using distributed order management systems, including their ability to continually make the Sales &

The customer service representative’s first priority is always the customer. Whatever the customer wants, ideally, the customer gets. However, when the customer service representative conducts the search with respect to locating the desired product and shipping the product at the desired shipping address within the desired delivery time sometimes becomes a burden. There are often times where the closest warehouse does not have the requested product in stock and other warehouse locations need to be conducted. In that event, the customer service

Headquartered in Minneapolis Minnesota, Target Corporation is one of the largest chains of retail stores in United States and Canada (Stone, 1995). Founded in 1902, the chain now has more than 360,000 employees worldwide. The company operates nearly 1925 stores out of which 1795 stores are in the US and 130 stores are in Canada (NASDAQ, 2014). The business prides itself in a diverse portfolio of merchandise that their outlets houses, ranging from dry groceries to electronics, furniture, apparel and much more. Its distribution networks make use of third party vendors, direct shipping as well as distribution centers. It also operates a successful e-store target.com which offers customers a virtual one-stop shop for their needs.

The companies I am studying are Wal-Mart and Target. Both are major discount retailers, general merchandisers who compete as cost leaders. These companies both very large, big enough to execute on their strategies effectively. Yet one has chosen the path of international growth and the other has not yet, pending expansion into Canada in 2013.

When the trucks arrive a small team unloads and bring product to their designated section of the store. For apparel, the clothing is put on racks and wheeled out. Where a small team folds, locates and displays them according to planograms and sets. The process of unloading, locating, displaying should be concluded before the store opens with no products on the sales floor. This is to keep the store looking clean and providing the customers with a clean, stocked environment. The effectiveness of Targets current distribution is good; however, inventory counts often have a crippling effect on the company. Since target launched their online pickup and ship from store the company has noticed an error in their operations. Their inventory counts did not refresh fast enough, if a guest just bought say a dress, it would not be accounted for, for 3-5 hours later in the system. Thus, issues for customer satisfaction would occur when a guest would either see online that we had it in stock, or order it for in store pick up and us not being able to fulfill their order. By improving their inventory management system, Target could see an increase in sales, customer satisfaction and online and in store customer traffic.

Target’s business-level strategy is one that does not strictly focus entirely on one plan to gain a competitive advantage over competition. It encompasses various strategic and meticulous planning and decision making that is implemented in order to position the company at the top of the retail industry. With competition from the likes of Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, and Costco, Target uses several clever and “out-of-the-box” ideas to attract consumer attention and ultimately increase market share within the industry. Most of the company’s ideas centered more on the differentiation of products and services provided to customers than lowering prices. For quite some time, the company’s plan was to not compete head-to-head with Wal-Mart in terms of lowering prices but instead to provide their customers, who they identify as “guests”, with a special experience every time they visited a Target location. One idea that was implemented was to market and sell upscale, trendy clothing and unique merchandise at discounted prices.1 This strategy, known as the “cheap-chic” strategy, focused on providing good quality clothing from various well known designers and fancy products from high-profile manufacturers for prices lower than their competition. This plan was vital because it began essentially began the concept of customers referring to Target as “Tar-zhay” which according to Patrick Barwise and Sean Meehan, who are university professors, as a “connote its trendy sensibility”. Target

Nearly everyone is at least somewhat familiar with Target stores; the famous bullseye logo is identifiable all across the United States. With the motto "Expect More, Pay Less", the company suggests that customers can expect more of everything, at more reasonable prices.1 Target's commitment to the consumer, as well as it's employment consideration and management style led Fortune Magazine to name it as one of the Most Admired Companies in 2005.

1. Netflix’s original marketing strategy offered several flat-rate monthly subscription options; in which, members could stream movies and shows via the Internet or have disks sent to their homes in a pre-paid and pre-addressed envelope. Free from the despair of due dates and late fees, members could keep, up to, eight movies at a time. Upon the return of a disk, Netflix would automatically mail out the next movie from the customer’s video queue. Members were able to change and update their queues as frequently as they liked. The sheer innovation of Netflix’s strategy encouraged several competitors to enter the market to compete directly,

The Target Corporation, what used to be known as the Dayton Dry Goods Co., is an American retailing company that was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1902. In 1962, the first Target store was opened in Roseville, Minnesota. It is the fifth largest retailer by sales revenue in the United States behind Wal-Mart, The Home Depot, Kroger and Costco. The company is ranked 33rd on the 2007 Fortune 500. Target operates its retailing business exclusively in the United States. It is a rival with Kmart and Wal-Mart. Target was listed in Internet Retailer's list of the top 500 retail web sites in 2007 also, this not only proves of brick and mortar sucsess but also online retail.

Delivery to a customer is a key component to retail business, whether online or in a store. Measuring delivery cost efficiency, the total cost of delivery from the stock(s) to the customers’ homes or to the desired store for pick-up is evaluated. The delivery cost is the key measurement for this metric. The

The procurement section of Target’s supply chain is an essential part of how it replicate costs to customer requirements. The overall affiliation between customer fulfillment and the supply chain are closely linked to products that are designated based on benchmarks that have been appropriately matched to target costing structured with market criticism and feedback provided. When focusing on purchasing products to sell to customers, the organization selects and processes the best option that best matches Target’s

Services: A host of services are provided to suit the needs to different businesses. Overnight shipping and next-morning delivery are most popular amongst other services like next-afternoon delivery and second day service. Same-day and early-next morning services are even costlier. Shipment volumes have risen over the decade

Target Corporation is the fourth largest retailer in the United States. The company operates 1,556 stores in 47 states. The company has three main retail divisions: Target Stores, Mervyn’s and Marshall Fields. Target Stores is the number two discount retailer in the country, trailing only Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. they have distinguished itself from its competitors by offering upscale, fashion-conscious products at affordable prices (Funding Universe, n.d.). Targets supply chain actives has been an important part of and one of the most significant reasons for its huge growth and success. The purpose of paper is to analyze Targets supply chain and related actives to understand its effectiveness and gain a better understanding on how their supply chain contributes to the company’s growth and success.

Amazon must also ensure that its products are delivered in a timely fashion, given that speed of delivery is yet another significant competitive component of being an online retailer. Amazon has a special algorithm "to determine the best shipping route and method for each item to make sure the consumer good arrives on time as its specified location" (Master 2012). However, the use of this system is not purely

Businesses over the years have learned from their mistakes, and make the necessary adjustments within their organizations to eliminate the issues and prevent them from occurring again. By conducting market testing, manufactures can collect input from the end user, then analyze the information to determine the best location to place their products for purchase. The various demands received by manufactures can be mind boggling and without proper handling it can lead to devastation. Daily, manufactures deal with internal demands from their employees; from adjusting work schedules to allow for vacations, to better healthcare insurance, or higher wages. Moreover, companies receive demands from their distributors, requesting an increase in product production to meet the demand from the retailers. Along with increase in production, there is demands for transportation, which all of these demands affect the manufacture’s bottom line and without proper planning and budgeting, these demands may lead the manufacture out of business. Product distribution is critical and when the product is not available it affects more than just the manufacture. Understanding the direct and indirect approach for distributing a product along with choosing either an extensive, intensive, or exclusive distribution channel will allow the product to reach the distributor, retailer, and consumer all while making everyone in the supply channel happy.