Latest news with #price match
Forbes
5 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Target Ends Price Match Policy, Handing Amazon, Walmart The Pricing Advantage
NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 24: People walk past the Target store on 42nd Street in Times Square on June 24, ... More 2025, in New York City. (Photo by) Target is pulling the plug on its decade-old price match guarantee, originally touted as a cornerstone of its value promise. When introduced in 2013, then-CEO Gregg Steinhafel said it would give shoppers confidence that they could 'shop at Target every day for the best value in retail.' Now, Target is effectively ending its best-value-in-retail promise and conceding a critical competitive edge to Amazon and Walmart. Beginning July 28, Target will no longer match prices to identical products sold by Amazon or Walmart within a 14 day window after purchase. Going forward, it will only match prices for items sold in-store at Target or on as if that isn't something a customer should expect from any retailer. In a statement to USA Today – the company did not respond to my request for comment – Target said, 'We've found our guests overwhelmingly price match Target and not other retailers,' suggesting that the policy wasn't too cumbersome on customer service staff or too costly to deliver. Pricing Wars The company touts that it is committed to 'being priced right daily,' yet Profitero's 2024 Price Wars study found Target's prices are on average 13% higher than Amazon's, the price war leader, and that Walmart averages just 5% over Amazon's lowest price. Full disclosure: price matching isn't all that common in retail. 'Generally speaking, it puts us in line with what the rest of the industry already does,' a Target spokesperson said. Indeed, Amazon and Walmart don't have such policies, but then they don't need to. While customers rank price, product quality and convenience as the trifecta in determining where to shop, customer trust in a retailer to do right by them is not far behind and a key factor in building and sustaining customer loyalty. In making this price match policy change, Target has undermined hard-earned customer trust. 'Competitor price matching has provided Target advantageous value perceptions with customers,' observed Professor Emeritus at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. Self-Inflicted Damage The policy change couldn't have come at a worse time. Target ended fiscal 2024 down nearly 1% to $106.6 billion from $107.4 billion in 2023. And it got off to a bad start in fiscal 2025. Revenues fell 2.8% in the first quarter after calls to boycott the company erupted following the announcement that it was rolling back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies. From February through June 2025, Target's monthly foot traffic has been on a steady decline compared to the previous year, and it dropped another 6.3% during the week of July 7, according to Target has read the room and lowered previous year-end guidance from 1% revenue growth to a low-single-digit decline in fiscal 2025. Guidance for adjusted earnings were also pulled back to between $7 and $9 per share. The latest news about changing the price match policy won't have the far-reaching impact on the public's perception of Target as the end of its DEI policies. Target's share price has risen about 2% this week to trade just under $106 per share today since the price match news broke versus the 35% decline from a high of $142.50 at the end of January to $93 on May 21 after the first quarter earnings call. Yet it is another hit to Target's reputation as a retailer customers can trust to do the right thing when times are tough, as they are now. Driving Customers Away 'Ending price matching isn't the biggest of deals,' shared Neil Saunder, GlobalData's managing director of retail. 'But the way Target has communicated the change feels off – which is common these days. Target claims external price matching wasn't widely used, so why end it?' Noting that removing the price match guarantee puts more pressure on Target to deliver value and good prices – 'Something it has struggled with more over recent years.' – Saunders concludes, 'Without the safety net of price matching, Target has to work harder to prove its pricing is competitive and trustworthy.' In the flip of a switch, Target has taken another step that erodes customer confidence and trust and pushes them even closer to key competitors, like Walmart and Amazon, who they can continue to count on to deliver more competitive prices. See also:
New York Times
7 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Target Ends Price-Matching Policy After More Than a Decade
Since 2013, Target shoppers have been able to request a price match if they found an identical item sold for less at Amazon or Walmart. Soon, that retail perk will be over. Target said on Wednesday that it would be ending its price-matching policy next week. The policy allowed shoppers who could prove that they found a lower price for an item (provided it was the identical brand name, size, weight, color and model number, and was sold by Amazon or Walmart) to receive a price match, according to the Target policy. But starting July 28, shoppers will not be allowed to buy such items at the lower price, a Target representative said in a statement. The only price matching that will be permitted will be if a cheaper price is found on the Target website or in one of its stores. The statement said that Target's customers are more likely to receive a price match on items sold at different prices by Target than they are on items sold by other retailers. When Target's price-matching policy was introduced in early 2013, Gregg Steinhafel, the retailer's chief executive at the time, said it would enable customers to 'shop at Target every day for the best value in retail.' But Target has been struggling to rebound from a difficult 2024, when it reported inconsistent sales growth and a tumbling stock price. The new policy puts Target in line with some rival retailers who don't offer price matching, said Neil Saunders, managing director of the retail consulting firm GlobalData, but it also means that it has to be more exact in its pricing. 'The onus is on Target now to make sure its pricing is right,' he said. Retailers already monitor competitors' prices and make real-time adjustments, he said, noting that technology has made this process a lot more sophisticated. But he cautioned that consumers compare prices on big-ticket items like electronics, and that is where Target could lose customers if it doesn't set prices competitively. The move comes at tender time for Target, which has been contending with underperforming sales and economic uncertainty brought about by President Trump's tariffs, as well as a slowdown in consumer spending and a backlash to its retreat from diversity efforts. The company's latest earnings report, issued in May, fell short of expectations for quarterly sales, and the retailer slashed its full-year financial forecast. Target now expects a low-single-digit decline in sales this year, down from a projection a few months ago of a small gain. Mr. Saunders said that while the price-matching policy 'may be only very marginal for Target,' in a challenging economic moment for retailers, every little bit helps. In addition to the tariff uncertainty, Target's financial challenges include its weak profitability, poor forecasting and inventory management, and difficulties with staffing, Mr. Saunders said. Staffing challenges can also lead to messy aisles, items not being replenished and not enough registers being open, he said. 'It's friction in stores that pushes people away,' Mr. Saunders said, 'and pushes them to rivals.'
Fast Company
22-07-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Target's latest change to its shopping policy is sure to be unpopular
BY From boycotts to tariffs, it's fair to say Target has had a rough year so far, and now customers may not be happy with this change to a favorite shopping perk. Starting on July 28, the mega-retailer is altering its price match policy, which for nearly a decade, gave customers a refund if they bought an item at Target and found the identical item for less at either ' Amazon, Walmart, or with Target Circle' within two weeks of the purchase. Customers who request and receive the price match get the difference between what they paid and what the item cost elsewhere. Going forward, the new policy will only apply to the same item bought from another Target store or the Target website, not from a competitor retailer. How can I request a price match from Target? To make use of the current price match policy before it ends, or to request a price match with items from other Target stores or the website for in-store purchases, customers must provide proof of the lower price to Guest Services at their local Target store. For or Target app purchases, call Guest Services at 1-800-591-3869. Target by the numbers As Fast Company reported, after explosive sales growth in 2021 and 2022, the mega-retailer has been flatlining. In 2023, net sales dropped $1.7 billion, or 1.6%, and declined again in 2024, though comparative year-to-year sales were up about 1% (2023 was a 53-week year). In May, Target reported first quarter earnings, including net sales of $23.8 billion compared with $24.5 billion in 2024. The company cut its annual sales projections and said it expects a low-single-digit decline for 2025, after projecting a 1% increase for sales in March. Target has a current market capitalization of $48.34 billion. The super-early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is this Friday, July 25, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
CNN
22-07-2025
- Business
- CNN
Target is abandoning one of its biggest customer perks
Target is changing a roughly decade-old policy that let customers save some extra cash. The retailer is altering its 'price match' policy, which allowed customers to request and receive a refund for the difference of a product if the shopper found the identical item cheaper at Amazon, Walmart or Target itself within 14 days of purchase. That's changing beginning July 28: The price match policy will be valid only if customers found an item for a cheaper price at Target's stores or website within two weeks of purchase. It will no longer apply to Amazon and Walmart prices. Target's price-matching policy started in 2013. Amazon doesn't have a price match policy, and Walmart ended theirs in 2019. The changes come after a rough quarter for Target, with sales at stores open for at least a year tumbling 3.8% compared to the same quarter a year prior. This was partly because of tariff-related uncertainty as well as backlash from some customers about its reversal on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, executives said. 'We faced several additional headwinds this quarter, including five consecutive months of declining consumer confidence, uncertainty regarding the impact of potential tariffs, and the reaction to the updates we shared on (DEI) in January,' Target CEO Brian Cornell said on a call with analysts in May. Cornell warned of 'massive potential costs' from tariffs, but he said Target could offset them by diversifying suppliers, adjusting products and possible price hikes. Target (TGT) is set to release earnings on August 20. Shares have fallen 25% so far this year.
CNN
22-07-2025
- Business
- CNN
Target is abandoning one of its biggest customer perks
Target is changing a roughly decade-old policy that let customers save some extra cash. The retailer is altering its 'price match' policy, which allowed customers to request and receive a refund for the difference of a product if the shopper found the identical item cheaper at Amazon, Walmart or Target itself within 14 days of purchase. That's changing beginning July 28: The price match policy will be valid only if customers found an item for a cheaper price at Target's stores or website within two weeks of purchase. It will no longer apply to Amazon and Walmart prices. Target's price-matching policy started in 2013. Amazon doesn't have a price match policy, and Walmart ended theirs in 2019. The changes come after a rough quarter for Target, with sales at stores open for at least a year tumbling 3.8% compared to the same quarter a year prior. This was partly because of tariff-related uncertainty as well as backlash from some customers about its reversal on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, executives said. 'We faced several additional headwinds this quarter, including five consecutive months of declining consumer confidence, uncertainty regarding the impact of potential tariffs, and the reaction to the updates we shared on (DEI) in January,' Target CEO Brian Cornell said on a call with analysts in May. Cornell warned of 'massive potential costs' from tariffs, but he said Target could offset them by diversifying suppliers, adjusting products and possible price hikes. Target (TGT) is set to release earnings on August 20. Shares have fallen 25% so far this year.
