Target is turning the holiday marathon into a series of sprints

The early holiday section at Target's recently revamped SoHo store. Dominick Reuter/Business Insider The holiday shopping season keeps creeping earlier on the calendar, and that head start can come at the expense of the final stretch.After weeks of crowds, big-box stores in the week before Christmas can be left with picked-over shelves. This year, as part of CEO Michael Fiddelke's turnaround effort, Target is shifting from a marathon mentality to a series of sprints intended to help the retailer finish strong.Target's US stores will kick off the holiday season with a major reset in the first week of November, followed by another overhaul in the first week of December after Black Friday.But the team isn't stopping there.For the home stretch, Target is picking up the pace with a new micro-season intended to carry the energy through the final 10 days before Christmas. Some of the toys that Target will be selling this holiday season. Dominick Reuter/Business Insider "Decorating your home is done, then you start going to gift-giving," Target's chief merchandising officer Cara Sylvester told reporters at a preview event in New York last week. "The entire back of the store will be transformed into what we're calling Christmas Morning Magic."That means this year, instead of seeing leftover string lights and stockings in the seasonal section, Sylvester said the zone will be flooded with fresh stocking stuffers priced from $3 to $20.Target is, of course, not the only retailer to struggle with late-season momentum that can leave last-minute shoppers in the lurch, but Fiddelke has focused on faster cadence to win back shoppers. Dominick Reuter/Business Insider "The holiday season is such a culmination of what the team has been hard at work on all year," he said at the briefing. "It's a hectic time of year." Target's chief brand officer Michelle Mesenburg told Business Insider that the company is taking a lot of cues from its recently revamped concept store in New York's SoHo shopping district.Starting early and turning items over more quickly has been a successful strategy at the SoHo store, she said, as well as a flexible approach to fixtures that keep the store looking fresh through several episodes of a longer season. Now the company is looking to put that philosophy into practice nationwide this holiday. Read next Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Dominick Reuter is a senior retail reporter for Business Insider, primarily covering Walmart, Target, Costco, and other big box retailers. His stories tend to focus on issues and trends that affect employees and customers, such as affordability challenges and the growing race to provide ultra-fast delivery services on e-commerce orders.Prior to joining BI in 2019, Dominick worked for more than a decade as an independent photojournalist covering a wide range of stories for global wire services and newspapers, including Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, and Agence France-Presse.Dominick studied photojournalism at Boston University and later earned a Masters in business and economics journalism from Columbia University.If you're an employee or customer with a story to share, please contact me via email or text/call/Signal at 646-768-4750. Target