Target Tests Curbside Delivery

Aiming to better compete against Amazon and Walmart, Target announced news this week that it is testing a new service in which users don’t have to get out of their cars to pick up goods they purchased.

In a blog post, the retailer said the curbside delivery service is being tested in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, enabling customers to have their orders delivered to their cars by a Target employee. Once a customer places an order online via the Target app, they can select “Drive Up,” and the retailer will send a notification when the purchase is ready to be retrieved. Customers hit the “I’m on My Way” button on the Target app when they are en route to the brick-and-mortar location, and — after pulling into a designated parking spot — a Target team member will then deliver the order.

“Stopping for diapers and toilet paper may not be glamorous, but it’s still on a lot of our to-do lists,” Dawn Block, Target’s senior vice president of digital, said in a blog post. “Drive Up is our latest effort to make it easier and faster for busy guests to conveniently get what they need, and simply get back to their day.”

Target said it started testing the order ahead pickup service with select Target team members during the summer. The curbside delivery is free and works at all of its brick-and-mortar stores throughout Minneapolis-St. Paul. It’s only available for customers that have the latest version of the Target app installed. Among the items consumers can get curbside delivery for include home furnishings, toys, electronics, household essentials, non-perishable food, baby care items and more, Target said in the blog.

This isn’t the only high tech move Target has been making in recent weeks. Late last month, the retailer announced a deal with Pinterest in which Target will integrate the website’s visual search technology, Lens, into Target’s mobile app and desktop website (though the mobile rollout will precede the desktop rollout). This collaboration marks the first integration of Lens into a retailer’s mobile shopping app.

Going forward, Target shoppers, enabled by Lens, will be able to click a photo of any product and use visual search to find similar or matching items on sale at Target. Pinterest, through the legions of Target shoppers, will see Target’s ad spend on their site increase as part of the retailer’s connected effort to drive more mobile shoppers to the company’s digital channels, such as the Target app.