At the new Target store in Rosslyn, Virginia, there’s evidence everywhere of the big-box chain’s efforts to make itself relevant again.

There’s plenty of cycling gear – helmets, seat covers, tire pumps, reflective shirts – because Target has micro-tailored the selection here for a neighborhood that its research found is heavy on bike commuters. A display near the entryway is stocked with the trail mix and freeze-dried fruit they think health-conscious urbanites will want to snack on. And the first thing you see when you walk in is a pick-up counter for e-commerce orders, because the retailer is betting that apartment dwellers might like this option better than having a package left on their doorstep.

Target, the nation’s sixth largest retailer that pulled down $73 billion in sales last year, has different-looking stores today because it is a vastly different company than it was just over a year ago, when it reeled from a slew of problems.

CHANGING DIRECTION

Its expansion into Canada – its first foray outside the United States – was a money-losing disaster. A major data breach had taken a toll on consumer trust. And perhaps most important of all, it had tried so hard to deliver rock-bottom prices to recession-scarred shoppers that it started to lose the personality and chicness that had devotees lovingly calling it “Tar-zhay”.

For decades, Target and other large-format chains such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy stormed into America’s suburbs and exurbs, opening thousands of stores and gobbling up more of our shopping dollars and, in turn, becoming something of an economic bellwether. But years of siege from e-commerce retailers such as Amazon.com – and the demise of chains such as Linens ‘N Things and Borders – have made many analysts doubting the future of the format.

Now, as shoppers swing into the holiday retail season, Target is trying to make a fresh case that a vast fleet of 1,800 brick-and-mortar outposts is actually an advantage even as the explosive growth of mobile Web use is reshaping the way we shop.

COURTING NEW AUDIENCE

So the chain, where some 30 million of us go shopping every week, is moving to spiff up its stores and turn them into pick-up hubs and distribution centers for online orders. And under a new chief executive, Brian Cornell, it is looking beyond its core customer base of suburban baby-boomer moms to appeal to millennial moms and dads, urban dwellers and the nation’s growing Hispanic population. The retailer’s sales and traffic have been improving lately, a sign that these steps might be working.

Target’s new strategy is no doubt a nod to an important demographic shift: Millennial shoppers today outnumber boomers and are expected to spend about $600 billion this year. Their preferences have been a key factor behind Target’s move to ramp up its selection of organic food and products with “natural” in the label.

“It really, I think, occurs when moms have their first child and begin to become almost zealots for, ‘Alright, what’s in the product that I’m serving my child?'” said Cornell during an interview at the company’s Minneapolis headquarters. “We see rapid shifts from conventional to organic baby food, but then it continues across category. Lite, diet, lean, fat-free, have been now viewed as code for, ‘there’s a lot of artificial ingredients there.'”

Target has expanded its Made to Matter line, a collection of organic snacks, cleaning products and beauty items. It is currently testing further changes to its wellness-oriented grocery assortment, and executives have said we will likely see more dramatic repositioning in this category next year.

FLEX-FORMAT STORES

Reaching millennials has meant not just rethinking product offerings, but also venturing into the urban hubs where many of them have opted to live. Target in October opened four of what it calls flex-format stores, smaller outposts that have a limited merchandise selection compared to a traditional Target. (They used to call these Target Express or CityTarget stores, but recently they’ve all been rebranded Target.)

The Rosslyn store is one of these smaller stores, which executives expect many shoppers will use for fill-in trips instead of major stock-ups.

That’s exactly what Lisette Gallegos, 24, was doing when she stopped by on a recent Friday morning to grab a couple bottles of wine for her office’s potluck. Gallegos said she’s been coming to the store frequently since it opened near her workplace several weeks ago, picking up office supplies or even lunch.

The assortment may not be big, Gallegos said, but “it’s basically everything you would need in a Target.”

Because the merchandise selection can’t be as broad in a flex-format store, Target is trying to tightly curate it. While the Rosslyn store has lots of cycling gear, the St. Paul, Minn., flex-format store has lots of shelf space for toys and baby products.

This localized approach is one Target is piloting for its bigger stores in hopes of boosting sales.