Usually at conferences such as #IRCE15, the retail executives who agree to speak tend to dance around the truth. Well, they tell the truth, but only part of it. They’re quick to share their successes and how their brands are innovating, but are hesitant to bring up their failures and short-comings.
But not Jason Goldberger: The President of Target.com and Mobile aired the retailer’s dirty laundry for all the world to see by starting his keynote presentation by discussing what I call #Lillygate. That would be when Lilly Pulitzer for Target launched and the surge in customer demand left all of Target’s digital channels basically paralyzed. The above showcases a very small sampling of the angry tweets Target and Goldberger himself received.
“We knew Lilly Pulitzer was going to sell out; we just didn’t know how fast,” he admitted. The site was down for a total of 90 minutes, and the team was scrambling to find out why.
So why did Target miss the mark? “We relied on consumer data that was less than six months old,” Goldberger explained. And within that time “things had dramatically changed.”
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Target is like all retailers in that it is under crushing pressure to innovate, reinvent and deliver. So how is the retailer learning from #Lillygate and pushing its brand forward? Goldberger offered a few best practices for retailers in the audience:
- Be guest obsessed, not channel obsessed;
- Reassess your assets; and perhaps most importantly
- Get comfortable saying yes.
I personally loved that Goldberger aligned retail with improv comedy. A key principle in the art of improve is to always say “yes, and…” It keeps the joke moving and ensures the dialogue progresses.
For retailers, “if a customer wants to do something, just say yes,” Goldberger said. “Keeping them happy and engaged is the goal.”
In fact, the folks at Target have found that saying yes and looking at the bigger picture of the organization is key. That eventually, “all the details will fall into place.”
So far, Target has been successful in its big picture, “say yes” frame of mind. By the end of the summer, approximately 500 stores will be able to ship items to customers’ homes. The retailer also is testing curbside pickup, has increased investment in its grocery business and is trying to create a stronger clienteling experience in stores. Mobile also is going to be key for the retailer, as Goldberger noted that by 2017, Millennials will replace Boomers as Target’s largest customer base. And currently 98% of Target customers shop digitally.
Overall, Target is spending up to half of its capital dollars on technology that will not only improve the digital experience but also supply chain operation, which in a way reaffirms the success Target has seen thus far in both areas.
It has been a chaotic day at #IRCE15, but we’ll be making updates throughout the show!
