Seth Ketron, a marketing professor at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business, spoke with KARE 11 about Target’s stronger than expected quarterly sales results and whether the retailer is positioned for long-term growth. Ketron noted that it will take several more quarters of consistent performance to determine whether Target has fully turned things around.
From the article:
Some other promising signals include foot traffic increasing 4.4%, digital sales increasing nearly 9%, and same-day delivery sales going up 27%.
However, University of St. Thomas retail and marketing professor Seth Ketron says one quarter isn’t enough to show a trend, especially the first quarter, which is normally the slowest quarter of the year.
“It’s a good sign, but it’s way too early to say they have righted the ship and everything is going to be hunky dory from here on out,” Ketron said.
He says corporate strategies take several quarters or years to pay off, but he believes Target leaders are on the right track, because they’re achieving higher sales by investing money into their stores instead of making cuts.
“Cutting things out of the customer experience is not going to help long term. So, investing in stores and making them more aligned with what customers are looking for, or making them more modern or building new stores in places where the customer wants to be, these are good strategic investment moves,” Ketron explained.
