Comparable sales increased 1.9 percent and traffic grew 1.3 percent.
There’s some good news for Target. The retail chain recently released its Fourth Quarter financial statement, demonstrating that comparable sales increased 1.9 percent driven by traffic growth of 1.3 percent. In addition, digital channel sales grew 34 percent, in part due to Target’s holiday free shipping policy, contributing 1.3 percentage points to comparable sales growth.
Meanwhile, however, its sale of its pharmacy business to CVS also dinged total sales, which fell 0.6 percent year-over-year to $21.6 billion from $21.8 billion, missing expectations of $21.75 billion.
The same-store sales were boosted by Target’s baby, kids, style, and wellness categories, each of which grew three times faster than the company’s Q4 average. Full-year 2015 same-store sales rose 2.1 percent, and same-store traffic rose 1.3 percent.
Target’s positive numbers comes as chief rival Walmart reported lower-than-anticipated figures, according to Fortune. While Target’s e-commerce growth rose 34 percent in Q4, Walmart saw growth slow to a sluggish 8 percent, raising questions about whether the chain is losing the battle to Amazon.
By all accounts, it seems that the turnaround initiated by CEO Brian Cornell, who took the reins in 2014, is working. Cornell presented a “roadmap to transform business” last March including guest-focused strategies, prioritization of certain merchandise categories, and taking a channel-agnostic approach for its customers.
Fortune reported that Target recently announced a new line of kids furniture and an overhaul to the presentation of one of its billion-dollar brands, Market Pantry.
“With traffic growing for five consecutive quarters and our signature categories of Style, Baby, Kids, and Wellness leading our growth, Target’s results demonstrate that we are focused on the right strategic priorities,” Brian Cornell, chairman and CEO of Target said in the company statement.
“I want to thank our teams across the company for giving our guests a great holiday season, driving consistent growth throughout the fourth quarter and delivering on the sales and profit goals we laid out at the beginning of the year. While we have made a great deal of progress in 2015, we are excited about the opportunity in front of us to provide a more seamless experience and accelerate profitable growth.”
