In order to ramp up sales and increase revenue this holiday season, Target Corp is offering free shipping within the US for minimum online orders of $25, and it has partnered with Borderfree Inc to ship products to over 200 countries.
Retail supermarkets such as Wal-Mart Stores and Amazon among other competitors are also gearing up for holiday discounts and free shipping to raise sales during this season.
Target is already enlarging its differentiated products at cheap prices to attract middle-class shoppers; and in September, it said it will slash prices of all products to match what competitors are offering in store and online purchases.
"Traffic is very important for us during the holidays and...free shipping was very well received last year," Chief Executive Officer Brian Cornell said on Thursday.
The free shipping for orders placed online with Target will be between November 1 and December 25, and only orders of $25 and above qualified for free shipping within the US.
For Wal-Mart, only online orders of $50 and above will qualify for free shipping this holiday season. Amazon members with Prime shipping service qualify for free shipping; and Best Buy is waiving its $35 minimum order till early January.
Target is expecting to use its just increased 460 stores to be the main differentiator and to speed up delivery times.
Online sales was just less than 3% of Target's sales in the first two quarter of the year, even though Cornell looks forward to boosting this. But then with free shipping, the company enjoyed 36% of sales in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Target is looking to increase its online grocery delivery stores from two to six by partnering with Instacart. It will also increase its curbside pickup service from 21 to 121 stores; and it is hiring about 1,400 associates to help out with product presentation at its stores.
Meanwhile, the retailer is also developing a section at the front of its stores from where merchandise will be offered for just a few dollars.