Key takeaways:
- Target Plus, Target’s invite-only third-party marketplace, is expanding its brand roster with new additions including Clarks, Forever 21 and JanSport ahead of back-to-school and college shopping season.
- Non-merchandise sales, which include Roundel ad revenue, Target Circle 360 membership revenue and the Target Plus marketplace, grew nearly 25% in Q1.
- EVP and Chief Digital and Revenue Officer Sarah Travis says curation, not volume, is the foundation of the marketplace’s growth strategy.
Target is adding more brands to its invite-only third-party marketplace, Target Plus, as the back-to-school shopping season ramps up.
New additions span apparel, accessories, beauty, home and entertainment, with names like Clarks, Forever 21, JanSport, LovelySkin, Serta, JLab and Hisense joining the platform.
The expansion comes as Target’s non-merchandise sales, a category that includes Roundel advertising revenue, Target Circle 360 membership revenue and the Target Plus marketplace, grew nearly 25% in Q1. That growth signals that Target’s digital business is gaining ground beyond its core owned assortment, even as the company continues a broader merchandising overhaul that includes resetting nearly half of its center store food aisles and launching a new beauty studio concept in more than 600 stores.
Sarah Travis, Target’s EVP and Chief Digital and Revenue Officer, said the marketplace is designed to complement, not compete with, Target’s owned assortment.
“Target Plus plays an important role in how we’re expanding choice for guests and evolving our digital experience,” Travis said in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “It allows us to extend our assortment with more of the brands, products and trends guests are looking for, while maintaining the curation, quality and trust they expect from Target.”
Travis described the relationship between Target’s owned and marketplace assortments as working together as a single experience, grounded in the company’s emphasis on style, design and value. The marketplace gives Target flexibility to respond quickly to emerging trends and consumer demand without committing shelf or warehouse space.
Target Plus’s Invite-Only Concept
Target Plus operates on an invite-only model, which Travis says allows the company to be deliberate about every addition. To qualify, a brand must align with Target’s category strategy, meet quality and operational standards, and offer something that adds meaningful value for shoppers.
“Being invite-only allows us to be very intentional about every addition,” Travis said. “We look for partners that can consistently deliver the reliable experience guests expect from Target.”
Travis pointed to guest insights, search behavior and trend signals as primary tools for identifying gaps in the assortment. Korean beauty is one example. When Target saw growing guest interest and social media momentum around K-beauty, it quickly expanded its K-beauty offering on Target Plus to hundreds of new items. Target Plus brands now account for more than half of the retailer’s total K-beauty assortment.
That speed-to-market capability, she said, is one of the marketplace’s core advantages. Target can bring trending brands online faster than traditional owned-assortment processes allow, while still applying the same curation standards.
Capturing Back-to-School Traffic
Back-to-school is one of the year’s most category-spanning shopping periods, covering apparel, technology, school supplies, home goods, dorm essentials and more. Travis said the season represents a natural moment to expand the marketplace.
“As we continue to thoughtfully expand Target Plus, guests have more choice across the categories they’re shopping most and can find what they need through one Target experience, whether the product comes from our owned assortment or a trusted marketplace partner,” she said.
The timing also reflects a broader effort at Target to sharpen its relevance during high-traffic seasonal moments. Earlier this year, the company reported that first-quarter drops from Parke, Roller Rabbit and Pokemon resulted in some of the strongest launch-week sales in Target’s history, underscoring how well-timed product introductions can drive outsized results.
Maintaining Standards Across Third-Party Sellers
One challenge for any marketplace is ensuring that third-party sellers meet the same service expectations customers associate with the host retailer. Travis said Target addresses this through a combination of partner selection, performance monitoring and clear fulfillment requirements.
“The experience needs to meet the expectations guests have whenever they shop with Target,” Travis said. “We carefully select partners that can meet our quality and operational standards, and we closely monitor performance.”
Returns are processed through Target’s store network, which Travis said helps make the experience more seamless for customers regardless of whether an item came from a marketplace seller or Target’s own inventory.
Scaling Without Losing Curation
As Target Plus grows, Travis said curation is the mechanism that enables growth.
“Curation isn’t a constraint on our growth; it’s the foundation for it,” Travis said.
Travis described Target Plus’s model as designed to preserve the discovery and trust that shoppers associate with Target’s brand, even as the number of marketplace sellers grows.
“Guests come to Target expecting discovery, style, relevance and trust, and our invite-only model allows us to protect those expectations as we expand,” Travis said. “We’re focused on curation at scale, using data, technology and merchant expertise to bring in brands and products that add something meaningful to the Target experience.”
