Target Plans to Add Returns and Starbucks Ordering to Drive Up

Target Corp. is planning to expand its popular Drive Up offering with new capabilities, including the ability to return an item and pick up a Starbucks order, starting in select (and as yet undisclosed) markets this fall.

"Our guests continue to tell us they love the ease and convenience of Drive Up, and they have been asking us to add even more of the Target experience to the service," Target Chief Stores Officer Mark Schindele said in a news release. Letting guests complete a return and/or pick up a Starbucks order placed through the Target app and fulfilled by an in-store Starbucks location "will give guests even more of what they love about shopping at Target, quickly and easily," he said. Both features, according to the company, were top requests from customers completing Drive Up experience surveys.

The Minneapolis-based retailer said it's also expanding its "backup item" functionality—through which online shoppers can designate a preferred substitution if the item they ordered is no longer available—to a wider range of products, including beauty and household essentials items. 

The enhancements coming later this year follow Target's expansion of its assortment of perishable groceries available through Drive Up, as well as the addition of alcohol beverages to the Drive Up offering in select locations. The company also last year introduced a Shopping Partner feature to allow another household member to pick up a customer's Drive Up order. 

Target is set to release fourth-quarter and full-year fiscal 2021 earnings on March 1; in the company's third-quarter report, released in November, Target said digital comp sales had risen 29% year over year—a significant spike that was even more notable given the huge growth in online orders Target saw in 2020. By comparison, store comp sales in the third quarter were up 9.7%, and transactions climbed nearly 13%. Target Chairman and CEO Brian Cornell said at the time that the level of guest engagement the company was seeing was "far beyond what many would have imagined a few years ago."

Schindele, in Target's Feb. 23 news release, echoed the theme. "Ongoing investments in our same-day services have built trust and relevance with our guests, while meeting their needs—no matter how they choose to shop," Schindele said.