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Mass retail and e-commerce are coming together with a new partnership between Target and Shopify. The big box chain is working with the online platform to make trendy products from DTC brands such as True Classic and Caden Lane available on its third-party digital marketplace. The team-up allows Target to expand its assortment and offer more affordable options to an increasingly picky customer base.
Shopify merchants can now apply to sell through Target Plus, a curated selling platform that’s been around since 2019 and currently features more than 1,200 partner brands, including Crocs, Timberland, and Maui Jim.
“Target Plus invites consumers to explore a curated collection of products from vendors we trust, so they can shop our assortment with confidence,” Cara Sylvester, EVP and chief guest experience officer at Target, said in a statement.
- This option will be available through Shopify’s Marketplace Connect, a tool that helps brands manage their sales on major marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Etsy.
“This partnership is a clear chess move for Target and Shopify to join forces against the behemoth that is Amazon,” Juan Pellerano-Rendon, chief marketing officer at Swap, a retail technology platform, wrote in an email to Retail Brew. “Shopify can also fulfill its promise to brands that it is a platform for enterprise brands—we agree with that and see this as a step in the right direction towards getting widespread buy-in to that sentiment.”
One-stop shop: In other Shopify news, the platform announced a suite of new tools and features for sellers as part of its Summer ’24 Edition updates. These include making its Markets platform, previously used exclusively for international sales, into a “one-stop shop for growth and expansion” that includes B2B and in-person sales.
“Rather than spreading these functions across our platform as we did before, Markets consolidates everything into one location in your admin,” the company said in a statement. “No more navigating multiple stores or different workflows.”
In addition, Shopify is embedding AI across its platform, including expanded AI-powered image editing, product listings, and responses to customer questions, as well as a pilot version of an AI-enabled commerce assistant called Sidekick.