Before the holiday season, officials at Target wanted to re-imagine its See.Spot.Save area in the front of its stores, which is large and a very profitable business. Seeking to transform this area into something that would capture an even greater customer experience, officials christened it the Bullseye’s Playground.
Mission accomplished.
“We’ve modernized the environment, making it easier to navigate, more appealing and fun, incorporating our much-loved mascot into store displays,” Target CEO Brian Cornell said during Wednesday’s fourth-quarter conference call, according to Seeking Alpha. “While we love the new look, our guest reaction is what really matters. And the fourth quarter results showed they loved it, too, as comp sales in Bullseye’s Playground grew more than 25%, compared to See.Spot.Save in the fourth quarter of last year.”
For the fourth quarter and full-year performance, Cornell was pleased with the progress made throughout 2015.
“Traffic increased in all four quarters and the team delivered on our comparable sales and operating margin rate goals by driving rapid growth in our signature categories,” he said. “Target’s great store experience, unique items at an unbeatable value, and broad simple promotions resonated with our guests and drove this growth. Transactions, our measure of traffic, increased for the fifth quarter in a row, up 1.3% in the fourth quarter, reflecting growth in all of our selling channels.”
What’s more, digital sales soared an industry-leading 34% in the fourth quarter, on top of 36% growth in the fourth quarter of last year. Strong Black Friday and Cyber Monday weeks drove this increase. In fact, after setting a new digital daily sales record in the week of Black Friday, Target shattered all previous records on Cyber Monday.
“Our offer was broad and simple, 15% off everything on our site,” Cornell explained. “And the guest response was exceptionally strong. Our holiday season merchandising and marketing plans were focused on delivering broad, simple and compelling offers like our 10 Days of Deals, Black Friday door busters, the sitewide offer on Cyber Monday, and the bounce back coupon we offered to guests in our stores on Black Friday, all supported by cohesive marketing plans featuring outstanding creative work.”