Check out Mathilde Ho’s blog post on Target’s expansion.

Target’s expansion into Canada has caught the eye of many, as their expansion did not necessarily go as well as they planned, with their first year sales were reported as a loss of 1-billion dollars.

Mathilde’s post speaks on Target’s ability to adapt to it’s surrounding, attracting customers and temporarily placing Target in front of it’s competitors.

The belief that operational efficiency hyper competition between competitors leads to eventual self-destruction by Michael Porter shows us how even though Target is trying to get around it’s top competitor, ig.Walmart, it overlooks Walmart’s ability to easily match their lower price.

I agree with what Mathilde points of strong client base- reason to return and not turn to their competitors. Mathilde also made a good point on how Target should use their shopper data to better understand the needs and wants of their consumers, whether this being product availability to even online availability, a necessary shift into the virtual world we have evolved towards. I think it’s important for Target to differentiate themselves from Walmart, using the above data to properly stock their shelves with the appropriate products to continue attracting new and old customers. Their corporate strong-hold needs to be placed after their understanding of their consumer’s want/needs.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/target-winning-price-battle-with-wal-mart-study-shows-1.2775386