Shoptalk: Target’s Chief Strategy Officer Talks About Preparing for What’s Next

Target's Chief Strategy and Growth Officer shared how the retailer turns strategy into action at its physical and online stores during the Shoptalk Fall event.

This week’s inaugural Shoptalk Fall 2024 event in Chicago featured a variety of presenters in the fashion and beauty space on the heels of the organizer’s recent Groceryshop event in Las Vegas. That said, trends impacting groceries, household essentials and personal care sectors were covered, including in a keynote fireside chat with Christina Hennington, EVP and chief strategy and growth officer at Target Corp.

During that session, Hennington underscored the emphasis on creating true-to-Target experiences both online and in stores as the retailer embraces technologies, a topic that was front and center at Shoptalk Fall. “I was leading strategy and merchant teams and now it’s much more technology, with our efficiencies and capabilities teams, all in pursuit of outlining the strategy for the long-term and how we win, not just today but in positioning Target for the long term,” she told the audience.

Target aims to take a thoughtful approach to leveraging tech, she added. “Whether we are innovating in the space of technology or business operations and models, we don’t just do that for the sake of innovation. It’s always in service of solving a problem and continuing to learn, to make sure we are experimenting in pursuit to making the guest experience significantly better,” she pointed out.

Hennington shared examples of that approach in action. One use case is the new GenAI-powered chatbot called Store Companion that helps makes Target team members’ jobs easier by answering on-the-job process questions, providing coaching and training and supporting store operations. “It’s really powerful in the sense that it is an opportunity to give our frontline team members an informative, educated assistant in their pocket,” she explained. “It empowers our team and gives them the tools to service guests in a meaningful way and helps drive growth. But another way we think about growth is in a continuous improvement kind of way.”

The amount of data gleaned through engagements across programs and platforms has also helped Target focus on being the resource that its shoppers expect. “Our merchant team in beauty has done a phenomenal job over the last 10 years continuing to stay at the forefront of trends. They are out in the market, on social media every day, meeting with key partners and shopping the competitive set all the time in pursuit of really drawing out insights about what's going to work and then being relentless about testing and learning. And that category's grown by over 50% over the last several years,” she said.

Consumers’ demonstrated interest in value is also evident in the expansion of Target’s own brand offerings. “They are very much their own brand and compete with any national brand. And building the packaging, the design, the sourcing capabilities and the product insights allows us to continue to support the fact that people want these products,” Hennington remarked, noting that Target does over $30 billion in private label sales. “That’s bigger than some Fortune 100 companies as standalone brands.”

While data and digital initiatives have been a focus across the Target omnichannel, Hennington underscored the importance of brick-and-mortar experiences as the retailer remodels stores, invests in new formats and enters into new partnerships.

“There are a lot of things that we've invested in over a multi-year time horizon that I am really proud of and that truly differentiate Target in multiple ways. One of those is betting on stores. Of course, the market continues to grow across all channels, but believing in the fact that stores play a powerful role in the retail ecosystem and committing to growing our store base by over 300 new additions over the next 10 years acknowledges that stores that drive unique experience and create a space where people can connect and feel something different,” she declared. Target stores are also pivotal in the sense that they often serve as fulfillment centers for online orders.

She continued, “Our goal is to make sure that we create a feeling when you walk into Target, that you are not just there to transact, not just there to buy laundry detergent, but hopefully if we do our best, that you feel joy. That is part of our purpose.”

Shoptalk Fall 2024 also featured several exhibitors who showcased solutions to help retailers across many categories deliver on consumer preferences and expectations, such as Amazon Shipping, Amazon Today, Bloomreach, Inmar Intelligence, NielsenIQ, Sofftek, Placer.ai and Walmart GoLocal, among dozens of others.

Hyve’s next retail industry event is Shoptalk Spring, set for March 24-27, 2025 in Las Vegas.