Target fights off Amazon in early Black Friday battle
It appears Target (TGT) didn’t get railroaded by Amazon’s two-day Prime Day spectacle last week.
Target Chairman and CEO Brian Cornell told reporters on a media call Wednesday afternoon that its “Deals Day” event — held on the same days as Prime Day on Oct. 13-14 — saw sales rise more than two and a half times versus last year’s event (held July 15-16). Cornell didn’t share the total sales figure from the event or what product categories drove the better performance.
“It was much stronger than last year,” Cornell told Yahoo Finance on the call.
Amazon (AMZN) hasn’t disclosed sales figures from Prime Day. But more insight is expected from Amazon when it announces third quarter earnings on Oct. 29. Some forecasts pegged Prime Day at hauling in $10 billion in worldwide sales.
Target has no plans to let up on Amazon.
Next month the company will kick off a full month of Black Friday deals. Target says it will have 1 million more deals compared to last year.
To encourage safe shopping during the pandemic, Target will double the number of parking lot spots devoted to picking up online orders. Employees will be outside stores managing how shoppers enter in order to promote social distancing efforts. And the company is unleashing 1,000 handheld devices — not unlike those found at Apple stores — that allow shoppers to be checked out from anywhere inside the store.
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and co-anchor of The First Trade at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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