Target’s next CEO shares his 3 top priorities in returning to growth

Fiddelke, Target’s chief operating officer, has been with the company for more than two decades in many different departments and leadership positions. For most of 2024, he served as CFO and COO concurrently, and in May, the company said Fiddelke would lead an “enterprise acceleration office” to drive speed and agility across the company by simplifying cross-company processes and using technology and data in new ways.

The company made the announcement before its second-quarter earnings call Wednesday morning. Fiddelke will take the role in February 2026, with current CEO Brian Cornell becoming executive chair of the board of directors. This comes after several underwhelming quarters with declining or near-flat sales year over year. The second quarter was no exception: While net sales improved from the first quarter, they were still down 0.9% year over year.

“I’ve seen how our business can perform when we’re at our best, and therefore, where we also have clear opportunities today to improve our performance — and we must improve,” Fiddelke said on the company’s second-quarter earnings call Wednesday morning. “I know we’re not realizing our full potential right now, and so, I’m stepping into the role with a clear and urgent commitment to build new momentum in the business and get back to profitable growth.”

Analysts doubt whether Fiddelke will reinvent the wheel enough to get the company back on track, being a longtime Target insider rather than an external hire. “We are unsure of how Mr. Fiddelke will change the strategy he helped create,” wrote Joseph Feldman, senior managing director and assistant director of research for Telsey Advisory Group.

During the call with investors, Fiddelke outlined his three priorities in achieving growth and in reinforcing what he believes makes Target special.

Priority 1: Reestablish Target’s distinct ‘merchandising authority’

Fiddelke said Target needs to “reclaim its merchandising authority,” as one of Target’s most critical attributes is having industry-leading style and design.

“As you’ve seen over the last few years, even when overall results have fallen short of our aspirations, we’ve shown how strongly our guests respond when we offer the right blend of quality, value and style not seen anywhere else in the market,” Fiddelke said.

He said, to do so, the retailer needs to make sure it’s bringing this authority across each category in its business throughout the year.

“That will require change, and that change is happening,” Fiddelke added, noting that the company has already begun reshaping its hardlines assortment — now called “Fun 101.” “We’re already seeing positive comps and traffic growth in these categories, all from leaning into style and culture in much the same way we’re known for in our apparel assortment.”

The hardlines segment is up more than 5% in Q2, according to Rick Gomez, Target’s chief commercial officer. This has included leaning into trading cards; Gomez said sales for the segment are up 70% so far this year. Trading cards are on track to deliver $1 billion in sales this year, according to the company.

Gomez also said tech accessories like brightly colored headphones and phone cases and toys under $20 are leading share growth within the hardlines segment, and that the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 game console will continue to drive sales in the back half of the year through the sale of hardware and software, as well as related apparel, toys and collectibles.

Fiddelke added that the company needs to also bring this approach to its home category, as well as food and beverage, where he said the company has opportunities to build on newness and differentiation both from national brands and Target’s private labels.

“Across the entire assortment, we have an opportunity to further leverage our merchandising authority through our more than $31 billion [private-label] portfolio, where we’ve spent decades building and refining our industry leading design and sourcing capabilities,” Fiddelke said. “The team behind these capabilities truly puts us in a category of one in our ability to read, shape, scale and deliver emerging merchandising and style trends at incredible value.”

Priority 2: Elevate the store experience more consistently and frequently

Target needs to improve the store experience, especially in its consistency, the incoming CEO said.

The company is making progress, he added, noting that its on-shelf availability metrics in Q2 were the best the company has seen in years — particularly in “key items that should never be out of stock.”

“We’re also seeing far greater consistency in our intraday inventory reliability, as well as between weekdays and key weekend shopping windows,” Fiddelke added. “We will continue to build on this momentum.”

Love for the Target brand, he said, is fueled by an “elevated and joyful” shopping experience in stores and online.

“Beyond the assortment we sell is how we sell it,” Fiddelke said. “We can never take for granted the love our guests show us when they affectionately refer to their local store as ‘my Target.’ That’s loyalty we need to consistently go out and earn from well-stocked shelves and clean stores to a friendly and helpful team and an online experience that brings inspiration and discovery. We want to delight our guests who shop with us, every time they shop.”

Priority 3: More fully use technology to improve speed, guest experience and efficiency

Through the company’s new growth office, Fiddelke said the company has identified the biggest challenges that slow it down. This includes legacy technology that doesn’t meet today’s needs, manual work that can be automated, unclear accountability, slow decision-making, siloed goals and a lack of access to quality data.

He added that since the company’s last earnings call, it has deployed more than 10,000 new AI licenses across the company, though he didn’t specify what these include.

“As we continue investing in our future growth, we’ll be making key technology investments throughout our stores, supply chain, headquarters, and digital operations to power our team and our business,” he said.

He said Target is working to redesign large, cross-functional processes, like how it builds its merchandising and inventory plans, to clarify roles and access the right data. The company, he said, has also set the expectation that teams should be working in person more often to be more effective and solve problems more quickly.

Additionally, the company is evaluating its tech initiatives to determine which have the highest return and are the most mission-critical to realign resources accordingly, according to Fiddelke.

“Despite the solid foundation that’s been established, our performance over the last few years has not been acceptable,” Fiddelke said. “While we’re proud of the many ways that Target is unique in American retail, we have real work in front of us — and to be blunt, we need to move faster, much faster. … Over the past few months, we’ve been urgently adjusting our approach to assortment planning amidst a rapidly evolving external tariff and consumer landscape. This type of speed and agility is exactly how we need to lead across all aspects of our business.”