Dive Brief:
- Target plans to add more than 2,000 new wellness-related items across all categories, including 600 company-exclusive products, the retailer said in a Thursday press release. Over half of the new items will be priced under $10.
- The expanded assortment includes emerging brands and partnerships with influencers and celebrities. The new products include beauty and health self-care items; men’s wellness; nutrition and digestive health; food and beverages; wellness tech; and activewear and loungewear.
- As part of the expanded assortment, Target will add a new non-alcoholic beer brand co-founded by actor Tom Holland and add 250 new items to its Good & Gather food and beverage brand.
Dive Insight:
Target has made several high-profile expansions to its assortment over the past year with a consistent focus on affordability, value and low prices. The retailer said its latest wave of additions to its assortment is part of a strategy to infuse wellbeing throughout its offer by enabling consumers to create a personalized health regimen.
"We understand that wellness is deeply personal, and it spans many different aspects of people's lives, so at Target our approach to wellness reaches into every category of our assortment," Rick Gomez, Target’s chief commercial officer, said in a statement. Gomez said the new products will allow people “to take care of themselves and their families without having to spend a lot of money.”
The retailer began efforts last January with an across-the-board addition of 1,000 wellness-focused products.
The following month, Target debuted Dealworthy, a low-priced private label brand focused on everyday basics. It relaunched its Up&Up private label and added hundreds of products. In May, Target said it would cut prices on 5,000 items across its assortment. And in October just ahead of the recent holiday season, the company said it would reduce the regular prices of over 2,000 owned and national brands.
In Q3, Target missed some analysts expectations with year-over-year sales down nearly 1% to $25.2 billion. While overall comparable sales rose slightly for Q3, store comps fell nearly 2%. The company lowered its fourth quarter guidance and now expects flat comps. In response to ongoing macroeconomic challenges, CEO Brian Cornell said during the last earnings call that the company will continue its long-term investments in value and newness.
Beauty and household essentials made up 30% of Target’s total 2023 sales, followed by food and beverage at 23%.
For the upcoming wellness assortment expansion, some new items will receive front of the store placement, while other items will get “prominent displays” elsewhere throughout the aisles, Target said. Online shoppers will get personalized product recommendations and curated deals through the rest of this month.
