Target Acquires Shipt in Move to Bolster Logistics Operations

Target is making a move to keep up with the beast of Amazon.

The discount store retailer is acquiring Shipt, a grocery delivery service, for $550 million. The shopping service charges $99/year to send people out to choose and deliver groceries from stores. Target is planning to add more products to the service and slowly start to integrate Shipt into Target’s app and website, but the integration does not currently have a completion date.

Target’s physical stores will also offer the service, with half of the 1,800 stores offering the service by next summer and almost all having it available by the 2018 holiday shopping season.

Shipt will continue to operate independently of Target despite the acquisition and work with other retails, but won’t share data between them.

This acquisition follows the purchase of software company Grand Junction earlier this year, software that manages local and same-day deliveries, showing that the retailer is moving to beef up it’s logistics operations to keep up with the changing market. Target offers same day delivery in New York and can ship direct from most of it’s stores, saying it will offer same day delivery of all goods by the end of 2019.

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