If retail has a big three comprised of Walmart, Amazon, and Target, Target serves as the clear bronze medalist on that list. The retailer lacks the billions Walmart has been able to spend to breach the digital advantage Amazon had.
The retailer, for example, could not build out its own same-day delivery system to match its key rivals. Instead, Target built out similar delivery capabilities without spending billions.
In 2017, the retailer paid $550 million to acquire Shipt, a company that deploys contractors to personally shop and deliver food from Target stores on the same day. Shipt also delivers from CVS, OfficeMax, Sephora, and more.
Target built on that purchase and partnered with Uber Eats, DoorDash, and others, giving it a frugal way to match what Walmart and Amazon offered.
On the digital side of the business, Target certainly can’t match Walmart and Amazon when it comes to spending, but it has taken two key steps to differentiate its offerings. First, the retailer built out its network of owned-and-operated brands, and now, the chain has added a number of well-known brands to its invitation-only Target Plus online platform.
Target Plus adds merchants not sold in Target stores
Target Plus offers what the retailer calls a “curated and carefully selected third-party marketplace,” according to a press release.
Basically, it’s a section of Target’s website offering merchandise that matches what its customers want, but which may not be sold in its stores. It’s an effort to add selection without having to take on inventory. Unlike Amazon and Walmart’s third-party marketplace offerings, however, it’s exclusive and invitation-only for vendors.
“Target’s taking what I would call a shopper- and guest-centric view of this, not an advertising, revenue-maximization approach to it,” longtime retail consultant Bryan Gildenberg, founder and CEO of Confluencer Commerce, told Modern Retail.
Target Chief Marketing Officer Cara Sylvester explained during the retailer’s fourth-quarter earnings call how the online marketplace fits with the chain’s overall retail goals.
“It’s really an extension of our assortment strategy. And so the team is accelerating in places like home, where we’ve pulled back on big and bulky products in the stores in some cases. We’re leaning full speed ahead in on categories like furniture, mattresses, rugs, places where the guest expects a broader assortment, and we’re able to deliver that style and design authority, but do it in a more inventory and cost-efficient way,” she said.
Target wants to drive customers to its website
While I visit Target’s physical stores regularly and order from the chain via Uber Eats most weeks, I almost never visit its website and don’t have the chain’s app on my phone.
That’s something Target hopes to change by making its digital offering more diverse and appealing.
“Rather than opening the doors to any seller, we’re focused on building relevance and trust by working with partners that complement our assortment and also help us provide more of the breadth consumers are looking for, ensuring we’re a strong option in categories where we wouldn’t otherwise have a big presence,” Target’s Chief Commercial Officer Rick Gomez said on the Q4 call.
That strategy, while still in its early days, has been working.
“And you saw from this morning’s earnings release that we posted more than 30% growth in the marketplace last year, and we see that accelerating. We see great momentum in Target Plus marketplace,” CFO James Lee added.
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The marketplace remains a relatively small part of Target’s overall business, but it’s growing much faster than the retailer as a whole, which actually saw sales drop by 1.7% in 2025, according to its fourth-quarter earnings release.
That suggests the marketplace is becoming an increasingly important way for the retailer to expand its online assortment without making the large capital investments required to carry more inventory or build new stores.
Target expands its online selection
Interest in joining Target Plus has been strong among merchants.
“I don’t think we’ve seen any brands that we’ve talked to that say they are not interested in Target,” Megan Potts, founder of Triforce Digital Partners, an agency that specializes in helping brands get placements on non-Amazon marketplaces, told Modern Retail.
Brands, she noted, don’t want to rely on Amazon.
“How to get into Target is ‘actually one of the top questions we get when we start talking to brands about their expansion outside of Amazon,’” she said.
Target has steadily added brands to Target Plus, and the retailer recently added apparel and accessories brands Clarks, Forever 21, and JanSport; beauty and wellness brands including LovelySkin and NatureWise; and home, entertainment, and food brands including Serta, JLab, Hisense, and Wild Alaskan Company.
“This summer, we’re continuing to grow our roster of trusted marketplace partners and are launching dozens of new, hand-picked brands to give guests even more newness and inspiration across the categories they love,” according to a press release.
Target Plus acts as a sales platform for these brands, allowing them access to customers. The retailer does not stock this merchandise, although it does handle fulfillment from its warehouse in some cases, which the brands traditionally pay for.
This isn’t Target taking on more risk or increasing its inventory; it’s the retailer offering more choice to its customers without spending significant capital.
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