Target is expanding its specialty IT team this year, hiring 1,000 new engineers and technology workers, half of which will work in the U.S. and half in Bangalore, India, in order to improve its web, mobile, and supply chain operations. The retailer laid off 235 technology workers amid cost-cutting and restructuring; new hires will include specialists in analytics and economic modeling, among other areas, CEO Brian Cornell said Wednesday.
The new tech hires will no doubt help the retailer address issues like those on Cyber Monday, when its website sent customers into a queue during shopping and checkout as the site became overwhelmed by traffic.
At the time, experts told Retail Dive that the metering approach was actually not a bad fall-back, considering the waits were brief, customers and their shopping carts were kept in line, and the communication was clear.
As Mike Azevedo, CEO of database company Clustrix, told Retail Dive then: “They’re not using state of the art technology.”
Plus, he said, mobile is helping make shoppers less tolerant.
“You don’t have the shopper in their cozy couch, so they don’t have the patience,” he said. “So you lose them faster and a slow-down will annoy them even more. There’s more of an impact with a slow site on a phone.”
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