Target's Record Ecommerce Sales Growth Continues

After reporting strong traffic and positive comparable sales during last year's holiday season, mass-merchandiser Target Corp. said that it's expecting to record 2018 as its fifth consecutive year in which digital sales grew more than 25 percent.

During the combined November-December period, comps grew 5.7 percent on top of the 3.4 percent growth during the same period a year prior. These results reflected strong traffic, positive store comps and digital comps growth of 29 percent.

"Given our fourth-quarter outlook, we are on track to deliver Target's strongest full-year comparable-sales growth since 2005, market-share gains across all of our core merchandising categories, and double-digit growth in adjusted EPS," said Brian Cornell, chairman and CEO of Target Corp. "In 2019, we expect to build on this momentum as we gain further scale in our fulfillment capabilities and deliver profitable growth throughout the year."

Added Cornell: "We are very pleased with Target's holiday season performance, which came on top of really strong results in the same period last year. This performance demonstrates the benefit of placing our stores at the center of every way we serve our guests, including both in-store shopping and digital fulfillment."

The news comes the same day Target revealed the retirement of CFO Cathy Smith, who joined the company in 2015. Additional changes have been made to the retailer's executive team, including the addition of a new chief human resources officer, a new chief communications officer and a new president of food and beverage.

Minneapolis-based Target Corp. operates 1,800 stores and its ecommerce site, Target.com. The company is No. 13 on Progressive Grocer's Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.