What type of business is target corporation

In that same year the company began a new strategy: developing a "boundaryless" corporate structure wherein resources and marketing and management expertise could be shared by each of the three divisions to create a more efficient organization.

By early the Dayton Hudson Corporation consisted of three major autonomously run operating units: Target, with discount stores in 38 states, represented the company's primary area of growth; the moderately priced Mervyn's chain operated stores in 16 states, and the upscale Department Store Company operated 22 Hudson's, 19 Dayton's, and 26 Marshall Field's stores.

Such broad-based expansion from the first six-story building in which Dayton was housed no doubt would have stunned the company's founder. Capital expansion, as well as more varied retailing, had taken their place alongside the old policies of thrift and sobriety.

During , as part of its drive to turn around the Mervyn's chain, Dayton Hudson sold off or closed 35 Mervyn's outlets, including all of that chain's stores in Florida and Georgia. The late s also saw a retrenchment on the department store front, as Dayton Hudson sold its Marshall Field's stores in Texas and also closed its Marshall Field's store in downtown Milwaukee.

Dayton Hudson also continued its efforts to give back to the communities that it served. That year, the Target chain launched its Take Charge of Education program, which quickly became one of the corporation's most popular community support efforts.

The program allowed Target Guest Card holders to sign up the school of their choice to receive 1 percent of their Guest Card purchase amounts. Ulrich's cost-cutting efforts, the trimming of Mervyn's and Marshall Field's, and--most importantly--the juggernaut that Target had grown into combined to bring unprecedented levels of profitability to Dayton Hudson by the end of the s. These results were driven primarily by the Target chain, which had become one of the hottest commodities in retailing.

Ulrich had concentrated on making Target a hip chain featuring stylish products at bargain prices. For example, in early the chain began selling top-end Calphalon cookware and also launched a line of stylish small appliances and household goods designed by architect Michael Graves--the latter line becoming so popular that it quickly grew to include more than items. Meantime, the chain continued to grow at the rate of about 70 stores per year, expanding into the key urban areas of Chicago and New York City, as well as making a more widespread push into the Northeast.

As a result, the strong Target chain was generating more than three-quarters of Dayton Hudson's revenues by decade's end, compared to around half ten years earlier. The growing predominance of the discount chain led the corporation to rename itself Target Corporation in January During this same period the corporation quietly developed an e-commerce strategy that involved managing its own online distribution.

Online retailing gained a larger profile in early with the formation of a separate e-commerce unit called Target Direct. New store brand web sites were launched later that year. The Internet push also played a role in more name changes. In January the corporation announced that it would change the names of its Dayton's and Hudson's department stores to Marshall Field's.

Target was planning to launch an online gift registry during and wanted to do so under a unified department store name. Marshall Field's was chosen for several reasons: it was the most widely known of the three names, its base of Chicago was bigger than both Minneapolis and Detroit and was a major travel hub, and it was the largest chain, with 24 stores, compared to 19 Dayton's and 21 Hudson's.

At Target Stores the official name of the discount division , meantime, use of the Target Guest Card began to plateau as consumers gravitated more to third-party Visa and MasterCard cards, cutting their use of private-label cards. Testing began on a Target Visa card in the fall of , and by early nearly six million Guest Card accounts had been converted to the new Visa card.

The Target chain itself kept expanding in the early s, adding 62 discount stores to the total as well as 32 new SuperTarget stores during fiscal , bringing the overall total to nearly 1, and the SuperTarget count to around By this time, the Target Stores division was generating 84 percent of the parent company's revenues.

Rumors continued to swirl about the possible divestment of one or both of these divisions, neither one of which was adding to its store count Marshall Field's in fact sold its two stores in Columbus, Ohio, in Ulrich consistently denied such rumors, however, and thus far the stellar success of the Target Stores division had more than made up for the disappointing performance of Target Corporation's other retail units.

Penney Corporation, Inc. Toggle navigation. The Company manages its inventory in a range of merchandise categories, including apparel, accessories, home decor, electronics, toys, seasonal offerings, food, and others. It operates stores, including format stores in urban markets and on college campuses.

Contact Info. United States. Executive Leadership. Brian C. Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer. Michael J. John J. Melissa K. Michael Edward McNamara. New Stories. Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt Walmart Inc said on Wednesday it was planning to hire about , new U. Target Corp said on Thursday it plans to hire , seasonal workers this year, fewer than last year, to prepare for the holiday season at a time when the industry grapples with tight labor supply.

Target being a leading retail brand experiences demand fluctuations that can be caused by different factors. For example, while demand for certain products can vary with season, the demand for certain products can also rise due to marketing campaigns run by the brands or by changes in the market environment. People shop more during the holiday season when Target experiences extra demand for a large range of products including gift items and fashion products.

Coronavirus has also caused a change in demand patterns. People went to buy groceries and other products of general use like toilet paper in larger volumes due to the panic caused by the pandemic. The pandemic also caused demand to tilt in the favor of e-commerce players. However, with the reopening of the US economy, people are back at the retail stores. Consumers are shopping with more caution and the demand for essential products has grown.

This is also a rather complex aspect of business operations to grasp. It denotes that aspect of business operations that are visible to the customers. The businesses that work face to face with consumers may have more visible processes. For example, the healthcare and retail industry have more visible processes.

However, the same is not true about an automobile business. Customers do not have a very clear view of the production and distribution processes of automobile brands. They cannot peep into everything that goes on before the finalized cars reach the showrooms. This is the one aspect of automobile operations that they are most familiar with.

It is also true about businesses like Apple inc. However, when it comes to businesses like Amazon or even Facebook, these are customer-facing businesses or customers have very high visibility into a large part of their operations. These are also some businesses for which transparency and accountability matters a lot but it also matters for retail brands. Walmart, Costco, Target as well as other retail brands maintain their focus on product quality so as to retain customer trust.

However, any brand needs to exercise extra caution when it comes to the more visible aspects of its business operations including retail stores and marketing due to its direct influence on the image of the business among the public. Store operations are the most visible aspect of the business operations of Target Corporation.

As of , the company operated 1, stores as well as 41 warehouses. However, in case of physical retail, customer experience has a special importance. Most large retail businesses in the United States employ multiple store formats to serve customers. These retail stores are large, well designed and modern spaces that allow customers to shop as well as spend quality time. American shoppers like to spend the weekend with their families shopping at one of these retail stores. Another visible aspect of the business operations of retail brands like Target is their marketing operations.

Target employs many different promotional channels and mainly digital channels like online promotions, social media promotions as well as its own website. These channels have helped the company gain higher visibility in its domestic market. Digital technology is driving enormous gains in operational efficiency for retail brands.

Focusing on the most visible aspects of the business operations and designing them in a manner to offer a superior customer experience helps retail brands develop stronger customer relationships. Target strives to provide superior customer service to its customer to maximize customer satisfaction and to retain them for longer. To run an organization, a well-defined set of operations performance objectives is essential. There are five basic performance objectives applicable to all types of business operations.

These five basic operations objectives include cost, dependability, flexibility, quality, and speed. There are both internal and external implications of these five performance objectives. Moreover, the internal effects of these performance objectives has a definite impact on cost. Quality is the first important operational performance objective.

Quality also has a direct and significant effect on customer satisfaction. However, what quality implies for a business varies by the industry the business it operates in. For example, quality acquires a different meaning for an automobile business than for a technology business. The same quality standards do not apply to the two businesses. Quality can acquire different meanings in different settings or industry environments.

While in some industries, staff friendliness, hospitality, and customer service are the main measures of quality, product quality and performance are the main indicators of quality for another.

However, no matter whatever industry a business belongs to, customers appreciate quality everywhere. Quality bears a direct and major influence on not just customer satisfaction but also on organizational performance. Growth for any business is not possible without quality and compromising on quality in most cases erosion of customer base and financial performance. It is true about nearly every industry including fashion and retail as well as manufacturing and education industries.

Target corporation is a leading retail organization. However, increased competition in the retail industry has also grown the focus of the retail companies on quality since it is a major driver of sales and popularity. Apart from quality of the products sold by the brand, in other areas of operations too quality matters.

For retail businesses like Target Corporation, consistent focus on customer experience is extremely important since it affects customer satisfaction and retention rate. Target trains its employees to provide superior customer service. It sells a large range of products including its private label and company owned brands.

However, the focus always remains on selling good quality products at competitive prices. The company has outsourced production of the private label and owned brands to external suppliers. By focusing on quality in all aspects including sales, marketing and customer service, the company has been able to maintain a strong image among its customers and grow its customer base. Speed has also become an important factor affecting organizational performance. The growth of digital technology has led to higher focus on both speed and efficiency.

Speed has become a central concern like product quality, prices and operational efficiency for nearly every industry. A large range of services are being bought and consumed online. Not just in manufacturing or services industries but in the other industries too speed matters more than ever. It is because companies need to deliver their products or services to the consumers in a timely manner. While speed may not be as important in the case of fashion businesses as the technology businesses, it is still an important aspect of its business operations.

There are various aspects of operations including manufacturing and supply chain where speed is important. It is an era of fast fashion and even established shoe and apparel brands are feeling challenged by the rise of the fast fashion brands. It is why Nike as well as more rivals have focused on bringing more speed to their business processes so that ideas can be transformed into products and brought to the shelves faster.

In this way, by speeding up things, Nike is able to increase its profitability apart from production efficiency. The same is true to some extent about marketing where the company has to focus on keeping its customers engaged so as to avoid losing market share. A decile score of 1 indicates lower governance risk, while a 10 indicates higher governance risk.

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