Target is rolling out a program of regional sortation centers for orders filled in-store, which began in its headquarters town of Minneapolis, to four new markets, the company announced.  The new markets are Houston, Dallas, the Philadelphia area, and the Atlanta area.  The system adds a sortation step before orders go out for local delivery to increase efficiency, and potentially speed.  The Minneapolis pilot program opened in April 2020.

Orders pulled in stores (where Target says 90% of its online orders are filled) are picked up and routed to the new sortation center as soon as they’re packed, and then sorted, batched, and routed for delivery to local neighborhoods.  Target uses delivery service Shipt, which it acquired in 2017, to actually deliver the packages.