Just like when Amazon officially got involved, Target’s new move into the US consumer 3D printing arena is going to make ripples across the entire retail and e-tail scene. Perhaps even more so since Target is primarily a physical retailer, with sales of over 70 billion dollars a year.
The company, which has been growing for the past ten years — and only in this past full financial year has undergone a small dip (-1%) in total sales — has decided to begin offering personalized 3D printed products to customers and has done so by setting up a shop on Shapeways, one of the leading 3D printing services worldwide.
The strategic partnership will begin with an exclusive holiday collection of customisable 3D printed charms, rings and ornaments in the Target Shapeways Shop, calling on the customer to become the designer by customizing the material, color and engraving on their chosen product. (As an aside, I never realized until now that “customer” and “customizing” have the same etymology).
Just like for Target’s regular e-commerce business, shipping is free in the US and items are available for as low as $7.99 (which — as I have had the pleasure to find out — is the cost of a box of cornflakes in downtown Manhattan). The basic products were designed by Target’s own team of designers, using Shapeways ShapeJS tool. This means that, unlike other online marketplaces, the Shapeways Target Shop alone can already offer more than 150 items.
As one can easily imagine, in the home land of individualism (with all the good and the bad that ensues) the excitement for the personalization possibilities offered by 3D printing is reaching new levels of awareness, as more and more people find out about it. Now you can start to count in Target’s multimillion-strong customer base as well.
