The pandemic has thrown the entire retail industry a curve ball. Target Corp., though, is among the elite players in the industry that knows what to do with a difficult pitch. 

The big-box giant recorded an eye-popping 24 per cent increase in comparable sales from a year earlier, far higher than the 9 per cent advance analysts had estimated and its all-time highest quarterly gain on that measure.

Online sales soared 195 per cent, including strong increases in its drive-up and pickup options.

Meanwhile, comparable sales in its brick-and-mortar stores boomed 10.9 per cent. 

Many shoppers have adapted to the COVID-19 era by gravitating toward stores where they can do one-stop shopping. In some cases, they may have been pushed in this direction initially by circumstance, when local mandates forced the closure of non-essential retailers. Others are consolidating their trips out of a preference to avoid crowds and protect their health. 

That change in behavior has clearly been a boon for Target. The retailer said Wednesday that it gained market share in categories such as electronics, where sales rose more than 70 per cent from a year earlier, and apparel, where it notched “double-digit” sales growth. It is noteworthy that Target scored that strong clothing sales growth, along with a greater-than-30 per cent sales increase in its home goods division, in the same quarter that Kohl’s Corp. —  which has similar price points but more specialized focus — saw revenue plunge 23 per cent. 

Target’s average ticket — a measure gauging the sales amount per receipt —  rose 18.8 per cent in the quarter, another clear sign that people are doing more big stock-up trips when they hit up the retailer’s stores and website. 

There are signs elsewhere of the shift toward consolidated shopping visits. When Home Depot Inc. reported blockbuster earnings results on Tuesday, executives said their research showed consumers were visiting fewer and fewer retailers, and they believed that pattern was resulting in increased interest on its website in categories such as home decor and textiles.

This is not to say that Target is just passively benefiting from weird, unforeseen shifts in consumer behavior.  It has been laying the groundwork for the rise in e-commerce and curbside pickup for years, enabling it to meet the explosion in the trend amid the pandemic. The chain has methodically been rolling out pickup counters and drive-up lanes at its stores for retrieving online orders. The idea was that this format would prove popular with consumers because it could be speedier than doorstep delivery, and it would be better for Target’s bottom line than e-commerce models where it shipped packages to customers’ homes.  

So when the pandemic brought on a crush of interest in drive-up and pickup orders as people tried to stay away from stores but wanted goods quickly, Target was relatively well-positioned to respond. Target said it added 10 million new digital customers in the first half of the year.  If it can make habitual shoppers out of even a fraction of those people, that bodes well for the long-term health of its e-commerce business. 

Target also has invested heavily in sprucing up its apparel and home offerings to make them more trendy, positioning that had already made it a credible challenger to the likes of Macy’s Inc. or TJX Cos.  That work certainly helped drive its sales growth in the quarter, as customers who might have needed to visit Target for household essentials would have seen a well-curated and well-designed selection of goods in these more discretionary categories.

In a testament to the resilience of Target’s model, it managed to increase its gross margin in the quarter to 30.9 per cent even as it plowed money into increased labor expenses necessitated by the demands of the pandemic. Target’s booming sales — and its ability to keep a lid on discounting —  were enough to offset that challenge to profitability. 

The pandemic has had a dramatic effect on major retailers, revealing the weak to be even more vulnerable than before and making the dominant ones appear even more untouchable. Target is certainly in the latter category, with this moment of massive upheaval serving to fortify, and even increase, its market share. 

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Sarah Halzack is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the consumer and retail industries. She was previously a national retail reporter for the Washington Post.