Target in India (TII), the integrated headquarters of Minneapolis-based Target Corporation, supports more than 2,000 Target stores and Target.com. For over 21 years, Target in India has been at the forefront of driving technology, business, and digital transformation for Target Corporation, making it one of India’s longest-established Global Capability Centres.
Operating as an integrated headquarters, the Bengaluru centre combines technology, merchandising, supply chain, fulfilment, cybersecurity, digital, finance, HR, and other business capabilities to deliver value across Target’s entire retail ecosystem.
To understand how this journey has evolved and what continues to shape its future, GCC Pulse spoke exclusively with Andrea Zimmerman, President of Target in India. Andrea leads a multidisciplinary team of more than 5,700 professionals across technology, data, merchandising, marketing, supply chain, finance, HR, and other core business functions.
In this conversation, she reflects on Target in India’s evolution over the past two decades, its expanding capabilities, its people-first approach to AI, and the organization’s commitment to creating lasting business and community impact.
Target in India has been operating for over two decades and was among the earliest retail GCCs in the country. Looking back, what has been the biggest shift in the centre’s journey from where it started to where it is today?
Andrea: As one of the early GCCs in India, we have seen the role of GCCs evolve over the years from cost arbitrage to execution delivery centers, and now to strategic drivers of transformation and enterprise value. As part of this evolution, the breadth of capabilities that GCCs offer has grown beyond technology and core operational functions, now stretching into high-impact capabilities to drive outcomes across the value chain for their business.
At Target in India, we have been on a remarkable journey – evolving from primarily enabling scale to now driving impact across the entire retail value chain. This impact is accelerated by the fact that we operate as a multi-disciplinary team with co-location of Business, Tech, Product, Data & UX for several retail capabilities. We are unique in how we operate as an integrated global HQ, with ownership of outcomes resting with where the center of gravity for the capability sits.
Around 40% of your workforce in India is technology talent. Can you walk us through the key capabilities your Bengaluru teams own today?
Andrea: Being an integrated headquarters means that we work in a seamless manner as one global team. Our tech capabilities cut across the tech stack and include product, UX, analytics, data science, engineering, cybersecurity, analytics and infrastructure. But we also offer multi-disciplinary capabilities across the retail value chain that include supply chain, marketing, digital, store design, merchandising, finance and more.
Could you share a few examples of how teams in Bengaluru are driving meaningful business outcomes for Target globally?
Andrea: Everything we do in India is aligned to our enterprise strategy and focused on leading with merchandising authority, elevating the guest experience, accelerating technology to enable our teams and deliver a joyful experience for our guests, and strengthening our teams and community. That enterprise focus is reflected in the capabilities we’ve built here.
Store design and remodels are an example of how our teams are driving meaningful business outcomes for Target globally. Our store design team in Bengaluru does about half of all of our new store designs and 80% of our store remodels. It’s especially interesting when you think about the fact that most of these team members here have not actually been to the U.S. and experienced our stores.
Yet the power of our store design team is so strong that they are able to design store formats that resonate with our guests, blend in with the uniqueness of the particular community and neighborhood, create delightful guest experiences, and make an impact. Fulfillment is another great example. The last mile is one of the most complex and challenging aspects of the retail supply chain.
Our team in Bangalore has helped build sophisticated science capabilities that evaluate approximately 2,000 stores, fulfillment centers, and vendor locations to determine the optimal source for each online order. By balancing factors such as inventory availability, delivery speed, and operational capacity, these models help Target provide reliable delivery promises and, ultimately, a better guest experience.
At Target, AI is often positioned as a way to help teams work smarter and deliver better CX—not simply as a cost optimization tool. Has that always been a conscious philosophy, and how do you ensure AI continues to augment your people while creating business value?
Andrea: We’ve been using AI for many years to elevate our guest experience, support our team, and drive speed and efficiency across all our operations – from our supply chain and inventory management systems all the way to applications in the checkout lines in our stores and on our website and app.
With AI, we can be bolder, experiment more — and get through our roadmap much faster. It’s not AI for the sake of AI. We’re strengthening our foundations, so we apply the right AI in the right places.
At the same time, our team is a critical part of our business, and we are a very human brand. Technology and AI can help enable that connection – not replace it. We’re focused on investing in AI that helps our team work smarter, move faster, and create space for more human creativity and collaboration.
Target has long committed to giving 5% of its profits back to the communities it serves. How is that purpose reflected in India, and could you share a few initiatives that have made a meaningful impact?
Andrea: Strengthening our team and communities is one of our enterprise priorities and also rooted in our purpose of helping all families discover the joy of everyday life.
Community engagement is a long-standing part of our commitment to the places where we live and work through our CSR contribution and team member volunteerism. Since 1946, Target has given 5% of our profits to communities, and that commitment to community has been true for Target in India since the beginning. We are proud of the time and commitment our team members give to volunteerism across the areas of education, livelihood, and the environment. For example, we host an annual event called Gather for Good where team members come together once every year to run and support a cause.
But our commitment to the community goes beyond CSR. As one of the oldest GCCs in India, we also engage with the larger ecosystem to give back to the community through talent development and thought leadership. Our apprenticeship program, for instance, allows students to learn in an appropriate environment through upskilling sessions and exposure to how business works. We have converted over 30% of them to actual full-time employees.
For us, giving back to the community also includes how we contribute from a thought leadership standpoint. We curate platforms like Multiplai, our flagship AI conference for the external AI community, or focused meets for design and marketing professionals, product managers, etc to ensure that we are giving back to the community because when the whole industry gets stronger, we all get stronger.
Want to be featured in our next ‘Leaders Hub’ Spotlight? If you’re leading innovation from a GCC or have a story that can inspire the ecosystem, we’d love to hear from you.
