Target moving to get its groove back in the home business

• Target is revamping its home business by refreshing products, accelerating development, and enhancing its seasonal and holiday offerings.
• Signature brands, including Threshold and Hearth & Hand with Magnolia, will present newness more frequently.
• The company is leveraging Target Plus, its digital marketplace, to drive online home growth by offering a wider range of complementary brands.
• The relaunch of Casaluna bedding earlier this year is already boosting that label’s sales.

Minneapolis – As it seeks to recapture the old “Tarzhay” magic, Target is building a new channel strategy to reinvigorate its home business.

The initiative to revamp the business includes refreshing products and speeding up product development as part of Target’s new 5-year plan.

“In home, we have been on a journey,” said Rick Gomez, EVP and chief commercial officer, addressing investors this week during Target’s 2025 Financial Community Meeting.

“And as you know, this is an industry that’s been challenged over recent years. But we are not using that as an excuse,” he added. “We must do better.”

The retailer is “doubling down” on its legacy for affordable style by accelerating newness in its Threshold and Hearth & Hand with Magnolia brands. Target will also ramp up newness and the in-store shopping experience for seasonal and holiday merchandise as well as Back-to-College.

In the digital realm, the Target Plus marketplace provides a significant opportunity to accelerate home growth, said Gomez. The company is focused on working with vendors and brands that complement the retailer’s assortment and provide more of the product breadth.

“What sets Target Plus apart from other marketplaces is that it’s consumer-led,” he explained.

Some of the refresh work in home is already paying off. The relaunch of Target’s Casaluna bedding brand earlier this year, which included new prints and bamboo constructions, has boosted the private label brand’s sales by nearly 6% over the past two months.

Gomez also pointed to the success of Figmint, the kitchenware essentials collection it rolled out in fall 2023.

“Thanks to incredible style and can’t-miss pricing, it is competing directly against some of the biggest players in the industry,” he said. “We’re also committed to being first to mass like we’ve done with great brands like Stanley and Espresso and influential designers like Shea McGee.”

To improve speed to market and replenishment, the company is modernizing its inventory management system with tools powered by AI. The new systems are now used for roughly 40% of Target’s total assortment and will continue to expand. Target is also using the systems to latch onto viral trends – as it did with the Mob Wife aesthetic last fall, racing to populate its marketplace with apparel and accessories that captured the lifestyle.

“What we’ve recognized is the world has changed,” said Gomez. “Speed is critical. Trends happen really fast. Something goes viral on TikTok, and it could be the leopard print, or it could be something else, and we have to be on top of that, and we have to be able to move quickly.”

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