One of the largest U.S. retailers has announced its intention to actively start opening miniature retail outlets right in the hypermarkets it owns. Target already sells Apple equipment, but only as one of the goods. Now consumers will be offered a more comprehensive range of products. Besides, sales will be carried out by personnel who have received specialized training from Apple.
Christina Hennington, Target’s chief development officer, believes that the dedicated zones will attract customers’ attention and make the chain’s hypermarkets more interesting for visitors. When regular malls are frequently in a crisis, such stores-in-store can be a great way out for customers who, for whatever reason, don’t want to order appliances online. And Apple said in an official statement that the company hopes to “continue working with Target on exciting new ways to serve customers in stores and online.”
Apple’s mini-stores will resemble full-fledged Apple Stores in design and sales approach. True, they will lack the Genius Bar area, where customers can get technical support. But Target says it’s considering that possibility in the future. Apple products are in high demand. Such mini-replacements for the company’s full-fledged stores could attract additional customers to Target.
Target plans to open 17 mini Apple stores shortly. They are scheduled to continue spreading new formats in the fall. No financial details of the deal between Target and Apple are reported. What is known is that negotiations about it began several months ago.
The retailer already has experience with the opening of such outlets. Previously, hypermarkets reveal special zones with Disney toys and Levi’s clothing. Also planned this year are hundreds of smaller Ulta Beauty stores with carefully selected products and trained makeup and skincare professionals as salespeople.
In the pandemic days, with its shuttered stores and shopping malls, Target hypermarkets have become exceptionally attractive to shoppers pining for the old days when they could just leisurely wander among the product counters. Not surprisingly, electronics sales at Target are up 50% in the third quarter and more than 20% during the 2020 holiday season, compared to the same periods a year earlier.
It should be noted that the pandemic had the best effect on Target, whose stores have always remained open. It led to an increase in market share and a sharp rise in the share price. Their price went up 64% compared to last year’s figures. As for the company’s market value, it is now valued at $93.68 billion.
