Target Australia announced plans to close or convert more than 160 stores

In May 2020, owner Wesfarmers announced the closure or rebranding of more than 160 Target Australia sites — 92 of the 167 earmarked stores would be converted into Kmart. Sister chain Kmart had been outperforming Target in sales for five years on lower prices and a social-media-fuelled engagement machine: 'Kmart hacks' blogs, customers as promoters, and replication of high-end products like the teddy jacket that landed with women aged 20 to 35.

Analysts traced the failure to positioning. National Retail Association CEO Dominique Lamb said Target's choice of a higher price point than Kmart, and walking away from designer collaborations like Stella McCartney, cost it considerable market share. Retail strategist Brian Walker was blunter: squeezed by H&M and Uniqlo, 'Target just got vanilla, it just got pedestrian' — sitting on prime real estate with a rising cost base and no anchor to make it unique. IBIS World's Daisy Feller added that stagnant wages and a growing cohort of high earners starved the middle market Target had chosen.

The rationalisation landed on landlords who lost a foot-traffic anchor, on suppliers, and on staff — many expected to redeploy into Kmart. Some analysts saw a second act: with Wesfarmers having bought online retailer Catch Group, Target's brand could live on as an online marketplace.

More than 160 Target sites to close or convert — 92 of 167 earmarked stores becoming Kmart — in an already ailing retail sector.

The middle market it chose evaporated as consumers split toward discount or premium, leaving Target's price point with no constituency.

Kmart turned its shoppers into its marketing while Target dropped the designer collaborations that had differentiated it.

A rising cost base in prime locations needed sales volumes its positioning could no longer deliver.

The middle is not a strategy but a compromise: when one sibling owns cheap and imports own chic, the brand in between pays both rents.

The May 2020 announcement earmarked 167 sites for closure or conversion, including 92 intended to become Kmart stores. Staff redeployment and a possible online future were discussed at the time; the cited report does not verify completion of every planned change.