Target CEO Apologizes to Customers for Widespread System Outage
After a widespread system outage over the weekend, Target CEO Brian Cornell has issued an apology to affected customers.
In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the executive addressed the technical snafu that occurred on Saturday when shoppers experienced a glitch preventing them from completing transactions in stores over a two-hour period. The following day, several of the company’s outposts were hit with an issue involving their processors, with stores unable to accept credit cards for about 90 minutes.
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“Within a couple of hours, our teams were able to identify the root cause and push the fix to our stores and get us back up and running,” Cornell said, “but disappointing performance.”
Several expert tallies put the retailer’s revenue losses in the several millions as a result of the glitch. (Social media was also flooded with dissatisfied customer comments.) However, Cornell denied any impact on Target’s earnings forecast.
In May’s first-quarter financial report, the company predicted same-store sales expectations in the low- to mid-single digit percentages, with full-year adjusted earnings per share in the range of $5.75 to $6.05.
As of 10:00 a.m. ET, Target’s stock was down 0.15% to $86.34.
It’s not the first time the Minneapolis-based firm’s nationwide system was hit with technology-related problems. During the holiday season in 2013, more than 40 million shoppers were affected by a historic data breach that resulted in an $18.5 million company payout two years ago. Target has confirmed that this past weekend’s malfunctions were not related to a data breach.
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