Target for the first time ever will offer free, two-day shipping with no minimum purchase required this holiday season, in a bid to win shoppers over rivals like Walmart and Amazon. The retailer said Tuesday that starting Nov. 1 and running through Dec. 22, "hundreds of thousands of items" will be eligible for free, two-day shipping on Target.com. In March, it began offering the perk to its credit card holders or for those orders over $35. Also this holiday season, Target said its "Drive Up" service — where shoppers can place their orders online and have them brought directly to their cars — will be at nearly 1,000 stores, ahead of a planned rollout schedule. And its same-day delivery option via Shipt will be available nationwide. Target has been aggressively investing in its supply chain to give customers more ways to either shop in stores or online. With the latest progress, Target said it's never been more confident heading into the all-important holiday season, where for some companies more than 30 percent of annual sales can take place. And this year, there's plenty of market share up for grabs given the demise of Toys R Us, and Sears' recent bankruptcy filing and plans to shutter stores.

"I have never felt better about our position and our readiness to deliver against the holiday season," CEO Brian Cornell said Tuesday during a holiday preview event with members of the media. "As those [Toys R Us and Sears] stores close, its real market share that's up for grabs." The free shipping announcement by Target follows rival Walmart saying it will expand two-day shipping and in-store returns to many items sold by third parties on its website next month. Walmart currently offers free, two-day shipping on millions of items on its website for orders of $35 or more. And Amazon offers paying Prime members free, one-day shipping on more than 1 million items on its website, again for orders of $35 or more. In making a big push online, Target has been leaning into its fleet of roughly 1,800 stores. It's on track to have remodeled 1,000 of its stores by the end of 2020 — which are being outfitted with new pick-up kiosks inside and drive-up spaces in parking lots.

Confident it can meet holiday hiring goals

Last holiday season, Target said its stores fulfilled 70 percent of all digital orders. This year, that percentage is expected to be even higher. That's a big reason why the company is hiring 120,000 temporary workers, or 20 percent more people than it did a year ago. About 7,500 of those workers are expected to help pack boxes in warehouses, according to Target, and the company will double the number of hires fulfilling online orders in stores and distribution centers this year. Cornell said Tuesday that he's "confident" the company will meet its hiring goals, despite such a tight labor market in the U.S. that's making help harder to come by. He said Target had already received 100,000 job applications as of a recent holiday hiring event, and applications for jobs specifically within distributions centers are up 40 percent year over year. Target meanwhile expects that shoppers will flock to its stores this holiday season for the in-house brands they can't find elsewhere. It's rolled out more than a dozen of its own labels — for everything like clothing, furniture and electronics accessories — since the start of 2017. It's on track to add eight more by the end of next year. The company said that's a big reason why it reported unprecedented traffic at stores during the most recent quarter.

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