Target Expanding Private-Label Offerings to Other Stores

Shoppers might soon spot Target’s private-label brands at stores other than Target.

Christina Hennington, the company’s chief growth officer, tells Bloomberg News that it is expanding sales of its in-house Cat & Jack children’s brand at department-store chain Hudson’s Bay Co. in Canada after getting positive feedback.

According to the report, the deal is the first time Target has moved into the wholesale space, with the new products — swimwear, shoes and outerwear — expected to become available beginning next year.

Hennington said Target has also received interest from other retailers around the world and is in the nascent stages of exploring sales opportunities with stores in Europe and the Americas.

The report notes that this strategy — which comes as Target is dealing with declining sales — is unusual among retailers. Target sales it gets about $3 billion in sales from Cat & Jack products, the report says, with the company’s private-label goods making up more than $30 billion in annual sales — close to a third of the retailer’s revenue.

As PYMNTS wrote earlier this year, Target is part of a group of retailers giving private-label goods a harder look as ongoing financial pressures lead consumers to search for low-priced alternatives to brand-name products.

In February, Target announced it was reformulating 40% of the products for its Up&Up brand, which accounts for about 10% of the company’s private label stable. At the same time, Target unveiled a new brand, Dealworthy, focused on “basics,” which includes almost 400 items and which touts budget-friendly prices, “in a further bid to win cost-concerned consumers’ spending and loyalty,” that report said.

More recently, PYMNTS explored efforts by Amazon and Walmart to win over shoppers with their private label brands as they compete in the grocery sector.

For Walmart, that meant last month’s debut of bettergoods, its biggest private-brand food rollout in two decades, promising low-priced, “chef-inspired” items.

“Today’s customers expect more from the private brands they purchase — they want affordable, quality products to elevate their overall food experience,” Scott Morris, Walmart’s senior vice president for private brands, food and consumables, said in a statement.

Amazon has pared down its private-label grocery selection, but remains optimistic about the category. Last year, the company eliminated all but three of what had been 30 private label clothing brands and phased out two of its three furniture brands, while still expanding Whole Foods Market’s private-label selection.