Target says shoppers are unknowingly leaving money behind

Target's latest earnings report delivered a strong sales recovery and good news on future price cuts, but one figure signals a concerning shift in customer behavior.

As one of the largest retailers in the United States, Target's sales can often point to widespread consumer habits across the country.

Its second quarter financial results confirm the retailer is on the right track under the leadership of new CEO Michael Fiddelke (since Feb. 2026) to recover from previous sales struggles and bring back customers to its aisles.

Net sales improved 5.3% year over year, reaching $26.5 billion, and comparable sales rose 3.8%, according to Target's official report .

"Comparable traffic increased 3.6%, suggesting more shoppers are visiting Target as the retailer works to sharpen its merchandise, improve its stores and offer more value," reported TheStreet's retail journalist Maurie Backman.

And while the retailer's executive vice president and chief merchandising officer, Cara Sylvester, delivered great news to its customers, pledging further price cuts on top of lowering prices on more than 10,000 items over the last 12 months, Fiddelke disclosed an important change in consumer behavior.

Target's external AI traffic is growing more than 3.5× the industry rate

Earlier this year, Target became one of only a small number of retailers to team up with OpenAI, Google Gemini, and similar leading platforms to help further the development and growth of agentic commerce.

"More people are discovering products and finding inspiration in AI-powered environments, and we see a real opportunity to meet them on their shopping journey. By partnering early with leading tech innovators, we're helping guests turn inspiration into action and shop Target in a way that feels natural and easy" stated Sarah Travis, chief digital and revenue officer at Target, in a June press release .

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Target's latest results show a small but fast-growing share of shoppers arriving at the retailer through AI-powered shopping experiences.

"While still small in total today, as more consumers begin to explore the benefits of agentic shopping, Target's digital traffic sourced from external AI platforms is growing more than 3.5 times the industry as compared to a year ago," Fiddelke highlighted during the Q2 earnings call .

Although Target is building infrastructure for agentic commerce, it describes the consumer-facing experiences it has launched primarily as conversational AI shopping. Shoppers can ask questions, discover products, browse recommendations, build baskets and, on some platforms, complete purchases while retaining control of the final decision.