Target Cracks Down on Resellers in the Wake of Lilly Pulitzer Chaos

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

As is typical with these types of designer collabs, Target's Lilly Pulitzer collection spawned thousands and thousands of eBay resellers within hours of the collab selling out in stores and on Target.com, which in turn spawned some very angry customers. Now, eCommerce Bytes reports that Target is trying to cut down on this type of behavior in the future by banning resellers from purchasing its products.

"[Target] told me that they are no longer selling to resellers and the fact that I have ordered a very large amount did not matter," one reader told eCommerce Bytes. The person estimated that they had spent $100,000 at Target in the past year. When they tried to reach the customer service department, they were directed towards Target's terms and conditions, which states:

Target does not offer additional discounts on large orders of a single item or on large orders of many individual items. In addition, we reserve the right to limit quantities on orders placed by the same account, on orders placed by the same credit card, and on orders that use the same billing or shipping address. We will notify you if such limits are applied. Target reserves the right to prohibit purchases of any merchandise to resellers. Resellers are defined as a company or an individual that purchases goods with the intention of selling them rather than using them.

eCommerce Bytes reports that employees were informed of the new rules on May 12. "The issue is, Target sells that stuff at a loss to get guests in the store to buy other stuff," one poster disclosed on a website where Target employees communicate with each other. "Instead of a guest coming in and buying an iPad at a loss and then buying another $75 worth of clothing or whatever, we end up with a loss leader that isn't leading to any other sales."

Kayla Itsines and the 3 Million-Strong Bikini Body Movement

Selling the Great Outdoors: The Billion-Dollar Brand Battle for the Casual Camper

Can American Eagle Win Back Teens With One-Size Crop Tops?