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Target
Financial Services strategically supports our objectives to
deepen relationships with our guests, drive sales and increase
profitability in each of our three retail segments. We achieve
these goals through both innovative and disciplined growth,
adding new services such as the Target Visa smart card, and
continuing to expand existing businesses such as gift cards,
proprietary store brand credit cards and other financial services.
During 2001, we began our national roll-out of the Target Visa
card by upgrading selected Target Guest Card holders and accepting
new applications in our Target stores and on our website. By
year-end, we had more than two million active cards and had
exceeded $1 billion in Target Visa receivables, reflecting our
guests’ strong favorable response to the card’s broad utility,
enhanced loyalty and rewards features, and the powerful potential
of the smart chip technology. We are excited about the opportunities
presented by this first mass-scale application for smart chip
cards in the U.S. and believe the Target Visa will support our
financial services objectives and contribute its own profitable
growth in 2002 and beyond.
We also continue to invest in our proprietary credit card programs,
gift cards and our E*TRADE zone strategy, reflecting our commitment
to offer unique financial services that strengthen our guest
and community relationships. In 2001, we continued to reinforce
and encourage our guests’ use of our proprietary store-brand
credit cards at Target, Mervyn’s and Marshall Field’s
and we improved the functionality, design and in-store visibility
of gift cards at all three divisions. Going forward, we are
committed to further strengthening relationships with our guests
by providing them with powerful financial services capabilities,
and as a component of this strategy, we are continuing to evaluate
opportunities for future growth.
By leveraging over a century of experience and knowledge, we
substantially increased our credit card profitability in 2001,
despite a challenging environment. We believe this proven record
of performance and the powerful array of financial services
we offer our guests position us to deliver significant growth
in revenues and profits and to create substantial value for
our shareholders for many years to come. |
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