Nearly three weeks after Target Corporation and Neiman Marcus jointly debuted a limited holiday collection, demand for the goods reportedly remains weak and shelves remain well stocked.
 
According to a Pioneer Press report, while Target had been expecting a shopping frenzy, the collection hasn’t seemed to attract customers’ attention.
 
The collaboration between Minneapolis-based Target and luxury retailer Neiman Marcus involves a 50-piece collection of clothing and household accessories that are being sold in stores operated by both companies.
 
Prior to the collection’s launch, Target reportedly ramped up the inventory, limited the number of designer items that shoppers could purchase, and beefed up its website to handle large demand.

More recently, Target has relocated the designer items nearer to the front doors of its stores.
 
A Target spokeswoman told the Pioneer Press on Wednesday that she couldn’t discuss the collection’s sales but did say: “We have had millions of guests shopping the collection, and we really do feel that it played an important role in differentiating Target during the holiday season.”
 
But Twin Cities retail analyst Jim McComb had a different take. He told the St. Paul newspaper, “The selection of merchandise confused me,” adding that “the things they were offering were not the kinds that are going to fly off the shelf…”
 
Meanwhile, retail analyst Carol Spieckerman told the Pioneer Press that she sees the collection as a win for Target, adding that in addition to wanting to sell products, such sales events create brand impressions and drive traffic to stores—“things that you really can’t measure” but that offer “a nice halo effect going forward.”
 
According to the newspaper, Target Chairman, President, and CEO Gregg Steinhafel was asked last month whether the Target + Neiman Marcus Holiday Collection would last longer than a day and a half.
 
“We think it’s going to be successful across the board,” he reportedly told analysts. “It’s just a matter of how you want to gauge success—is it hours, or days, or possibly a week, which might be a stretch.”
 
Earlier this month and just a few days after the collection’s debut, The Wall Street Journal reported that analysts and customers alike were surprised that crowds weren’t bigger and sales weren’t stronger.