The Shortlist, August 23, 2019: Target is Delivering & Automation is Coming Finance

Target beat its target in its earnings report this week and that could signal good news for retailers nationwide. Largely driving this success is Shipt, the same-day-delivery company that Target acquired in late 2017.

Here’s what Target COO John Mulligan said in the company’s Q2 earnings conference call this week:

“Our same-day options are growing much faster than our digital sales. Specifically, combined sales for in-store pickup, drive-up and Shipt have more than doubled over the last year, accounting for nearly three quarters of Target’s 34% digital comp in the second quarter.”

Target rolled out a dedicated section of its website for same-day delivery orders this summer, making it more accessible for customers.

Tech is also coming to the financial sector, but it isn’t bringing you a Target gift card. Automation stands to move workers into different roles in the near future.

Bloomberg reporter Shelly Hagan broke down which roles might be more in-demand for humans going forward:

“There are optimists that are saying there will be many finance jobs added due to automation and this technology. LinkedIn says that job postings in the finance industry that list skillsets with data science have jumped 60% in the last 12 months. So, there’s a lot of demand for people that can do both finance and tech.”

In a report last year, PriceWaterhouseCoopers said as many as one-third of financial services jobs could be automated in the next fifteen years.

That’s what’s going on in the world of B2B this morning, I’m MarketScale digital editor Geoff Short.

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