Target will offer year-round price matching with online retailers

Retail giant Target Corp. said it is extending price-matching with select online retailers beyond the holidays into a year-round policy.

The Minneapolis company said shoppers can now request price matches anytime on identical items found at some big Web merchants, including Amazon.com and the online sites of Toys R Us, Best Buy and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Also surviving beyond the holidays: the retailer’s pledge to match in-store prices with those found on its own website. Target’s original holiday price-match policy ended on Dec. 16.

“We believe that our prices are competitive year-round,” Mark Schindele, Target’s senior vice president of merchandising operations, told the Associated Press. “We also know that our guests shop in many ways.”

Schindele said the extension is intended to give Target customers assurance that they are getting the best deal. The retailer already compares prices on over 30,000 products it offers with competitors.

Price matching is one strategy big-box retailers such as Target and Best Buy had adopted over the holidays to fight back against shoppers who browse stores and then hop online to find better prices from competitors. Target may be motivated by a holiday season that proved disappointing, with same-store sales in December remaining flat compared to the same month in 2011.

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