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Subject: Differences between the U.S. and Canada for Target in the Canadian Market

Differences between Target's American guest and Canadian guest

Financial Situation & Perceptions

There are approximately 35 percent of the guests from both US and Canada, which have a good financial situation, according to their ratings. On the other hand, there are 40 percent of the guests who rate their financial situation as fair, and 7 percent of them rate it as excellent. However, there are 18 percent of the guests who have a poor financial situation (Thomas, pp. 163).

There is some home in the minds of the consumers as they expect their financial situation to improve over the next few months. There are more than 40 percent of the consumers who expect their financial situation to improve in the coming year. On the other hand, there are nearly 47 percent of them who do not think the same way. There are 11 percent of the consumers who believe that it will only get worse.

The US and Canadian guests have the perceptions pertaining to financial situations. However, people who live in the Midwest and South regions believe to have a weaker financial position, whereas, people in the West are have better hopes.

Buying Habits

There are more than three-fourths of the guests who have limited their shopping habits since the last year or so. More than 50 percent of them reported limiting shopping on casual services. On the other hand, there are approximately 40 percent of the guests, who have controlled their shopping in various retail categories. On the other hand, categories such as shopping in a discount or grocery stores, and purchasing necessity goods did not have much effect (Zmuda, pp. 144).

One of the significant factors, which affected shopping behaviors of the guests, was their perception of their financial situation. Those guests who reported to have an excellent financial situation had 50 percent of those, who had cut back since the last year. Relatively, nearly 75 percent of the consumers with income level of more than $100,000, reported to have a cut back.

In addition to other differences, there are significant gender based differences between the US and Canadian guests. Men and women reported to have the same perceptions pertaining to the financial situations. However, there were more women than men, who reported to have cut back on their shopping. One of the reasons behind this difference is that women usually have more responsibility for shopping for the household goods than men.

Although, the US guests indicate similarities with the Canadian guests in terms of financial perceptions, guests from the US are more reactionary. There are approximately 29 percent of the shoppers who did not cut back in Canada, whereas 19 percent of the US shoppers did cut back (Steverman, pp. 124). Shoppers from the US hold reduction in their salaries responsible for their cut backs.

Generally, Canadian shoppers are more enthusiastic shoppers than the US shoppers. They report to have a higher frequency of visits to the retail ...