We said, ‘We have been testing and learning and we are going to put billions into re-modelling stores,’ when people were not talking about re-models. It wasn’t a popular pitch among retail experts back in 2017, recalled Cornell: While an alarming number of rivals were like rabbits in the headlights of the oncoming Amazon behemoth and threw all their efforts solely into digital in a bid to ‘be’ Amazon, Target’s strategy was built around both digital and the transformation of physical retail, rejecting the accepted wisdom that offline shopping was dead. Storing up successĪs noted above, what has placed Target in a strong position during the pandemic was its decision back in 2017 to take a different approach to transformation than many other retailers. ![]() America wanted to get back to a little bit of normal and get out there with friends and family and shop in our stores. It just gives me incredible optimism for the future. What’s so fulfilling to me is seeing how the consumer reacted during the Holidays season. Those headwinds are going to continue into 2022 with global supply chain challenges, inflationary pressures and labor shortages, but there’s room for hope, he said: That’s despite what Cornell described as “some unique headwinds - a playbook that none of us had in front of us” for the past 22 months. Most importantly, consumers said retail is still critically important to them and that bodes well for the future of the industry. They used both physical and digital channels. They shopped early, they shopped late, they shopped throughout the season. In the event the numbers saw a return to some kind of normality as store doors remained open despite the Omicron variant doing its best to disrupt:Ĭonsumers came out and shopped all categories. ![]() At some points in the run up to the end-of-year shopping splurge it looked as though Christmas might be metaphorically cancelled, although Cornell was confident things would be better. There is going to be a continued importance of ease and reliability, and the importance of safety - whether that’s putting plexiglas up at the point of sale, putting signs up about social distancing or providing masks and other safety features - and giving the option, if you are not comfortable in the store, of using same-day services.Īll that said, Cornell has been encouraged by data from the all-important Holida ys season in the US. What will be vital is to keep the pandemic operational learnings from 20 front of mind as they are clearly going to be as important, one way or another, in 2022, he advised: I’d love to have a crystal ball and tell you what the first half of the year is going to look like and the second half and when the variant starts to subside, but we are going to have to recognize that each day we have to listen to consumers and make sure we flex and adjust as needed. ![]() But for all that, Cornell remains wary of making too many predictions about how 2022 will pan out: Target had ‘a good war’ during the height of the pandemic in 2020 as its omni-channel transformation program launched in 2017 paid dividends and that’s continued through 2021. Target itself also pulled back on its physical attendance at the event, although one of the execs who did turn up in person was Cornell, the well-deserved recipient of this year's NRF’s Visionary award. It has to be said, none of these seem particularly in evidence at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show in New York this week, where the organizers determination to push ahead with an on-the-ground event has seen exhibitors and sponsors significantly scale back their presence as a result of them at least adapting to the realities of the ongoing COVID crisis. Three things are going to define retail in 2022, according to Target CEO Brian Cornell - agility, adaptability and flexibility.
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