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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Target Fetch

Target Cancels Indiegogo For Smart Home Replenishment Platform

Well that’s disappointing.

Today Target notified backers that the retailer has decided not to move forward with a beta of Fetch, the IoT powered replenishment platform the company introduced via an Indiegogo campaign in April.

While Fetch was similar in concept to Amazon’s Dash platform, Target chose three ordinary looking (but connected) household items in a paper towel holder, a toilet paper spindle and a soap dispenser to act as replenishment sensors . Each device was to come with built-in Bluetooth and would reorder consumables for the user.

Not anymore, at least with this particular Indiegogo campaign. Here’s an excerpt from the cancellation update on the Indiegogo page:

Hi Backers,

We’d like to thank you again for pre-ordering Target Fetch. Your support as early adopters is very much appreciated.

We’re always testing and piloting new products and services for our guests as we work to meet their needs now and into the future.

At this time, we’ve made the decision to not move forward with the Indiegogo beta test for Target Fetch. Our purpose was to learn, and we received great input.

I liked the idea of Target creating its own replenishment ordering platform and had actually backed the campaign out of curiosity. As I wrote in my post from April of this year:

 I do think it makes sense for Target to start to think about ways to allow customers to subscribe to products online as more consumers transition to online shopping. Combine Fetch with Target’s same day delivery service, Shipt, (which is expanding to more cities) and it’s easy to imagine never running out of paper towels or any of the household basics.

If one thing struck me as off about the initiative, it wasn’t the idea of Fetch itself, but instead how the company chose to roll it out.  I had to wonder why a national retailer like Target would use an Indiegogo campaign to introduce the concept to consumers. Not only did using Indiegogo take the buyer away from Target’s home turf (both in the form of its home page and the in-store retail environment), but it also risked the chance of a slow uptake of its online campaign.

And so what happened? The uninspiring campaign accumulated 200 total backers and hit only 86% of its revenue goal (and this after extending the deadline).

What today’s announcement didn’t make clear is whether Target is cancelling the Fetch project in totality or just the Indiegogo beta rollout. According to the timeline on the Indiegogo, the Fetch team been working on the project since early 2016, so it’d be surprising if they gave up on the concept altogether.

We’ve reached out to Target and will provide an update when we hear back.

Meet Fetch, Target’s Smart Home Powered Replenishment Service

If you’re like me, when it comes to home staples like paper towels and soap, you tend to buy the same brands over and over on fairly predictable replacement cycles.

This is something Amazon realized a couple years ago with the launch of the Dash replenishment platform and product subscriptions, and now Target is getting in on the replenishment game themselves with Fetch.

So what’s Fetch? It’s a new smart home powered replenishment platform developed by Target’s Open House innovation team that enables Target customers to subscribe to home consumables and then have them auto-ordered when they run out. What’s interesting about Fetch is it uses three sensor-enabled smart products – including a paper towel dispenser, a soap dispenser and yes, a toilet paper spindle – to figure out when a consumer is out of a given product and hit the reorder button. Fetch uses algorithms to predict when you’ll run out of product and, when it reorders, send a notification to your smartphone.

According to the product’s Indiegogo video (see below), the Fetch campaign is launching on May 1st. One obvious question I had is why is it being intro’d via Indieogogo? While I’m not entirely sure (we’ve reached out to Target to ask), my guess is this is a way for Target to essentially roll out a beta of the service before it’s rolled out to a wider audience.

There’s no question that this is an answer to Amazon’s Dash and subscription platforms. What’s interesting to me is Amazon seems to have moved away from the Dash button and replenishment platform and increasingly emphasizing voice (“Alexa”) and subscription ordering (including virtual Dash buttons). That said, I do think it makes sense for Target to start to think about ways to allow customers to subscribe to products online as more consumers transition to online shopping. Combine Fetch with Target’s same day delivery service, Shipt, (which is expanding to more cities) and it’s easy to imagine never running out of paper towels or any of the household basics.