Ridicule continues around Target’s online effort

The relaunch of Target.com did not go as smoothly as the retailer and its customers would have like judging from the persistent backlash a month and a half after the site went live. Ad Age piled on last week with a piece about how friction between marketing and technology teams contributed to a wide range of functionality and customer service issues.

“Throughout the (relaunch) process, Ad Age has learned, there’s been friction between Target’s marketing and technology departments, which needed to come together on the project to build both an appealing consumer-facing storefront and a site that links back to the retailer's existing system,” according to an article published Oct. 6.

Some friction is to be expected in any organization where smart people with strong personalities attempt to collaborate with one another on a large scale undertaking. How friction is defined, how much of it existed at Target and the degree to which it contributed to difficulties is unclear, but judge for yourself by clicking here to read the full article.