Target takes steps to court college crowd

MINNEAPOLIS — In the age of online shopping, Target is trying new ways to connect with college students while also bringing stores closer to campuses as it opens new smaller-format locations.

“How we’re reaching college students has changed and is evolving,” said Joshua Thomas, a Target spokesman. “As consumers are changing, so has our strategy and how we can service students.”

For more than 15 years, the Minneapolis-based retailer has played host to afterhours shopping events replete with DJs and school mascots in which they bus tens of thousands of students from campuses to Target stores around the country.

This fall, Target is paring back the number of busing events as it tries several other strategies to reach college students, an increasingly important demographic for its growth strategy.

It is testing a new service called “Shop Now, Pickup Later,” a spin on the buy online pickup in store programs that many retailers, including Target, have begun offering in recent years.

In the collegefocused pilot program, students at six universities — including Arizona State University and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas — can pre-order online from a curated list of about 300 items such as sheets, lounge chairs and minifridges and then pick them up weeks later around move-in time at a designated spot near campus.