The usual strategy for increasing holiday sales can lead to Pyrrhic victories for retailers: slashing prices and spending million in advertising has a way of crushing margins in the name of increasing sales. But it's been the modus operandi of stores like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) for years.
Target (NYSE: TGT) wants to try something different. According to USA Today, "Bucking the trend toward price cutting, Target plans a limited-time-only holiday promotion the week after Thanksgiving to lure customers into stores."
Sounds like a plan -- offering limited-time only merchandise will build excitement and get customers into the stores, without the debilitating effects of huge markdowns.
Target is beating Wal-Mart lately for one reason: They've found a way to compete as a big box retailer on something other than price. Wal-Mart's continued reliance on huge price cuts and Target's transition toward a more innovative marketing campaign is confirmation of a trend that's been establishing itself for awhile: Target is on the way in, and Wal-Mart's relevance is in decline.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-11-2007 @ 12:37PM
Jjjaaazzzyyy said...
Target has very little selecton and their prices are too high for their low quality products.
11-11-2007 @ 8:10PM
Alouisis said...
Target does have the neatest advertising. And their products are great values, too. By comparison, Walmart is like a toothless hillbilly cousin. The stores are a stinking mess (they really do stink) with inventory dumped all over and the shelves displays awry.
Next time I plan to buy a 'jug o'shine', I'll rush right over to wmart. Aside from that, they have nothing to offer me.
11-11-2007 @ 8:28PM
anon said...
I like how Wmart advertizes tens of thousands of rollbacks,ie price decreases. LOL! As a former department manager, there were no 150000 item decreases. There were many price INcreases
11-12-2007 @ 11:57AM
roudy11z said...
To respond to #2's degrading comments about WMT I say that the average young family at $30k a year with 2 children will shop WMT out of necessity if nothing else. Also WMT will be 30% or more less on most items than Target. I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is since I own some WMT stock. I still see them eventually winning this war even if they are from Arkansas. Who knows Arkansas may have the real people now that the Clinton's have left??