Dive Brief:

• Target CEO Brian Cornell last week provided a peek into the retailer’s future, saying at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, that the retail giant would be open to partnership with Uber or other delivery services to expand ways consumers could quickly get their purchases.

• Cornell also said that Target will eventually take Apple Pay, but that the company is focused on getting ready for chip-and-PIN cards in time for the holidays.

• The retailer recently reported healthy quarterly sales that suggest it's in the midst of a comeback.

Dive Insight:

Target is understandably gun-shy about point-of-sales security after its high-profile data breach a few years ago, and that might make it one of the first American retailers to actually be ready for the chip-and-PIN technology this year. 

On the local front, Target has already made moves to find shoppers where they are and where they want to be by developing smaller stores in more urban areas, and Cornell says that will continue. He was reportedly unfazed by the same-day delivery addition and other retail pushes by the likes of Amazon and seemed to relish the fact that Target has brick-and-mortar stores.

“We almost need to say thank you to Amazon,” he said. “They have taught the American consumer to shop online, but they don’t own that relationship. Our most profitable and our most valuable guest is the one who shops with us both online and in the store.”