If a retailer is going to keep up with the likes of Amazon and Walmart these days, they’ve got to be able to offer superfast delivery. Retail giant Target is getting in the game, with pilot programs beginning tests of same-day delivery in Birmingham, Alabama, and in Tampa and parts of South Florida starting this month.
The delivery service is made possible through a collaboration with online grocery delivery service Shipt, which Target purchased for $550 million back in December. But with Target same-day delivery, you can order more than just groceries. Your items are hand selected by a human being shopping within your nearest Target store, so you can purchase items from any department.
The deliveries themselves are free, but that’s after you buy a membership. For one month, a membership costs $14, or $99 a year, saving you $69 when you spring for the yearlong membership. And that’s for orders over $35 – if you just need a package of toilet paper or a frozen pizza, you’ll have to pay a $7 delivery charge. There’s another catch: prices on same-delivery items could differ from the price you’d get in the store.
But how do you know your personal shopper will pick the perfectly ripe avocado, or the right shade of eyeshadow? The app allows you to “connect with your shopper and get live updates from the aisles,” so that you can “inspect every single item.” Shoppers will “even learn your pickiest produce preferences – to make sure everything we deliver is just the thing you like.” Target will hire 100,000 shoppers to help fulfill online orders.
Once your personal shopper has assembled your order, you’ll receive it on your doorstep the same day, sometimes in as little as one hour.
If this test program goes well, Target will expand the service to other stores. They’re already planning to launch same-day delivery from stores in Arizona, Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina starting next week.
Ellen Vessels, a Staff Writer at The American Genius, is respected for their wide range of work, with a focus on generational marketing and business trends. Ellen is also a performance artist when not writing, and has a passion for sustainability, social justice, and the arts.
