How to get invitation into Target Plus & DVS – By Masei Ryland eCommerce & Luusama

How to get invitation into Target Plus & DVS – By Masei Ryland eCommerce & Luusama

By Masei Ryland eCommerce & Luusama

Since 2020, Target Plus has aggressively started to open up electronics, home appliances, furniture related items into its online platform.

As an eCommerce consultant, I have recently contacted and have a call meeting with some US local agents and Target managers about a new & updated onboarding plan in 2024-2025.

Up to now, there are only around a thousand of Target.com sellers, since both Target Plus and DVS are invitation-only with higher standard of taking/accepting sellers.

Well, through my personal experience of working with Target teams in 2 years so far, the Amazon sellers with high volumes of sales records and history would have a higher chance of being invited into Target Plus & DSV platforms. This is a common sense in our industry.

Currently, according to the Target managers & buyers, Target.com is looking for technology-related electronic items, furniture items, home appliances to enrich their site and their categories.

After submissions of brands, there are 4 key phases to the Target Plus & DSV Approval process to get the brands approved into the Target marketplace. Both Plus & DSV have similar approval process, but with different document & details to fill in. (For the difference between Target Plus & DSV, please read our previous article in the blog)

Phase 1: Initial Brand Screening

To become a Target Plus seller & DVS vendor, the brands will start with Initial Brand Screening. For your brand to be screened, you must make use of one of the Target approved partners for your initial submission. For more details, please contact us for more details. 

Usually, the Target approval team tends to approve the brands with existing Amazon & Walmart operations having over US$5 million or over of annual sales (GMV) & over 100 SKUs on Amazon or Walmart.

Phase 2: Detail product screening

In the second phase, the brand applicants are asked to create a spreadsheet file called assortment mix to fill in all necessary & relevant company & product information. Then, the brand research will be conducted by the Target approval team to see if they are qualified for the next step.

Phase 3: Account Onboarding

Once initially approved by the Target team, the approval process starts with onboarding managers who will go through the onboarding process for the brands like filling out some basic information such as the company info, EIN, DUNs, addresses, & Tel no.

Phase 4: Business Development

Once you've completed the onboarding process and logging into the account, Target team provides the brands with a Target manager who can help you put together strategies to sell more product on the Target Marketplace. Sometimes, the successful & newly Target sellers are asked to join the online video seminar & online training course (as I have done for few times.)

Normally, as Target applicants to get approved and become a Target seller, you & your brands should expect to get through the entire process in 6-12 months depending on the size of your catalog. Compared with other platforms like Amazon, the Target Plus approval & onboarding is a longer process one, because Target try to maintain the marketplace's standard. Again, both Target Plus & DVS marketplace are exclusive. It's not for every seller, and it's not like Amazon or Walmart.

Based on my experience of working with Target teams, the success of Target account approval really depends on how well the brands are selling on other platforms like Amazon. They will inspect the selling data & history of the brands, based on the brands & its product lists submitted by the applicants. 

For more details of application for Target Plus & DSV, please feel free to contact us via email to  sales@rylandhk.com