Target sells third-party products on Target.com through Target Plus, its curated marketplace. Target calls it invite-only, but it also runs a public Target Plus application: you submit your business details and a proposed assortment, and Target says it will share next steps within 30 days.
One point trips up a lot of sellers: Target doesn't pick, pack or ship Target Plus orders. You do, or your 3PL does, under shipping and returns rules that rule out a lot of small-brand setups. Whether your operation can meet those rules matters as much as whether Target wants your products.
How Target Plus works
You apply, Target reviews the application, and if you're approved you go through a structured 75-day onboarding before launch. By the end of those 75 days Target expects all onboarding trainings done and your priority assortment listed and sellable. Target describes the marketplace as "one seller per SKU" with fewer sellers per category than an open marketplace, which is why acceptance is selective.
Target's published checklist doesn't include a revenue minimum. Target takes a referral fee on each sale, and its referral rates page lists the rates by category and item price. Look up yours before you decide whether the channel pays.
Who can apply
These are the business requirements on Target's Target Plus requirements page:
- The business is registered in the US and can provide a W-9, DUNS number, EIN and a US physical commercial address that matches the W-9 and the IRS record.
- Sole proprietorships are not eligible.
- Residential addresses, PO boxes and private mailboxes, registered-agent addresses, virtual offices and co-working spaces without a dedicated office are not accepted.
- All products carry GS1-certified UPCs.
- The business has an official company domain.
- You can show a trademark certificate (brand owners and manufacturers) or a letter of authorization (resellers).
- Someone can support English-language onboarding calls between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Central.
Three of these are easy to miss for a small brand. A business run from home fails the address rule, and a sole proprietor needs a different entity type before applying. Target asks for GS1-certified UPCs, so if you bought your codes from a reseller instead of licensing them from GS1, confirm they qualify before you apply. And Target rejects "fulfillment centers where you have no active business presence", so a 3PL's warehouse where your business has no presence of its own can't stand in as your business address.
Product data has its own rules: hazmat items must be registered with UL WERCSmart, items that need it must be registered with the supplement data provider Label Insight, and wearables need size charts as a text grid, not an image.
What Target's shipping and returns rules ask of your operation
Target's shipping requirements, from the same page:
- Ship within 24 business hours of an order and align to a 5-business-day total transit time.
- No contact information or marketing materials on or in boxes, polybags and packing slips.
- Ship from the US with an approved carrier: UPS, USPS or OnTrac.
- Don't use competitor fulfillment services.
- Accept palletized in-store returns, delivered by semi truck, at a single US business address.
- Accept individual mail-in returns from shoppers at a single US location.
Each one changes something in a typical small-brand setup.
Amazon MCF and Walmart Fulfillment Services are out
Target doesn't define "competitor fulfillment services" on that page, but Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment and Walmart Fulfillment Services are the obvious ones: both are run by retailers that compete with Target, so plan on using neither for Target orders. If all your stock sits in FBA and you ship other channels through MCF, you'll need a separate inventory pool before you sell on Target Plus. That pool can be your own warehouse or an independent 3PL, and it can ship your Shopify and Walmart Marketplace orders too.
One business day to ship, five days in transit
The 24-business-hour clock applies to every order, including the week you're sick or traveling. That's hard to hold when one founder packs orders around everything else. The 5-business-day transit window is usually easier to meet with ground service from a central location than from a coast, so check your carrier's transit times to your farthest zones. As an example, from our Austin warehouse estimated ground delivery runs 1–2 business days to Texas metros and 3–5 to Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Seattle; actual times vary by carrier, service and ZIP.
Plain packing slips and no inserts
Target orders can't carry your marketing or contact details on the packaging or the slip. If your Shopify orders go out with a branded slip, a thank-you card or a discount insert, Target orders need their own packing rule, and whoever packs them needs to apply it every time.
Three carriers, and FedEx isn't one of them
Target's approved list is UPS, USPS and OnTrac. You'll see FedEx on some lists; it isn't on Target's. If your shipping software or 3PL picks FedEx for some zones, Target orders need a carrier rule that keeps them on the approved three.
Returns arrive by the pallet
Returns that shoppers drop off at Target stores come back to you consolidated on pallets, delivered by semi truck to one US business address, so that address has to be able to receive freight. If you use a 3PL, ask whether it receives palletized freight returns and how it bills them; returns handling is one of the questions worth asking any 3PL anyway. Mail-in returns from shoppers also go to a single US location.
Costs that come out of your margin
Target expects you to offer free shipping on orders over $35 and on orders from Target Circle Card holders, honor the 5% Target Circle Card discount, and provide free return shipping on mail-in returns while covering return service fees. Add the referral fee for your category, and price your Target listings with all of it built in.
Someone on the account for 75 days
Onboarding needs a dedicated person who learns Target's policies, sets up items and fixes item setup errors within a day, and answers portal requests and alerts within two days. After launch Target reviews how each item sells and can remove items that don't.
Connecting a Shopify store to Target Plus
Most sellers connect to Target Plus through an approved channel partner. Target's service providers list includes Shopify Marketplace Connect, which manages listings, orders and inventory across Target Plus and other marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart and eBay. Other partners on the list include Acenda, ChannelEngine, Feedonomics, Goflow, Mirakl Connect and Rithum (formerly ChannelAdvisor). Target also offers direct API integration without a partner, but only for sellers with an in-house US technical team that can build the required feeds, typically within 30 days, and maintain them; contract developers don't qualify.
For a Shopify brand, Marketplace Connect can bring Target orders into Shopify next to your other orders, where a 3PL connected to your store may be able to pick them up. Whether that works depends on your order-import settings and how your 3PL's integration handles marketplace orders, so confirm it with your 3PL and run a test order before launch. Some partners, Acenda for one, also connect to 3PLs directly. Either way, the Target-specific rules above (carrier, packing slip, returns address) still have to be applied to those orders, so tag or route them so your warehouse can tell them apart.
Check your fulfillment before you apply
Run through these before you fill in the application:
- Is the business an entity other than a sole proprietorship, with a commercial address that matches its IRS record?
- Does every product have a GS1-licensed UPC?
- Can every Target order ship within 24 business hours, every business day?
- Do you have inventory outside Amazon's and Walmart's fulfillment networks?
- Can those orders ship UPS, USPS or OnTrac, with a plain slip and no inserts?
- Can someone receive a pallet of returns off a semi truck, and handle mail-in returns at one address?
- Does your margin hold after free shipping over $35, the 5% Circle Card discount, free return shipping and the referral fee for your category?
- Who on the team owns 75 days of onboarding and fixing setup errors within a day?
If several answers are no, fix fulfillment first. A brand that packs its own orders can meet these rules with the right space and routine; many will find it easier with a 3PL. Simpl ships ecommerce orders from one warehouse in Austin, Texas, with same-day shipping on orders received before 12pm CT, and connects to Shopify. Whichever 3PL you look at, ask directly whether it can meet Target's carrier, packing-slip and pallet-return rules before you apply, and use our guide on how to choose a 3PL for the rest of the questions. If you want to talk through your setup, get in touch.
Selling to Target stores is a different route
Target Plus puts your listings on Target.com and you ship the orders. If you want Target to buy your product and stock it as a vendor, that goes through Target's separate supplier intake form, where Target's teams decide how they can work with your business.