More than half of Target stores across the U.S. are extending their operating hours to midnight in hopes of being able to appeal to the night-crowd and attract more consumers.

Target consumers have been requesting extended hours for quite some time now and they'll finally be getting their wish granted.

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Target has been losing customers recently and as a result, has been forced to start reducing their prices. Extending their hours comes as another strategy to help bring more traffic to their locations.

This doesn't necessarily put a dent in their heavy-hitting rival Wal-Mart, which 70 percent of locations actually operate 24-hours, but it's a step in the right direction.

"We did a lot more analysis into how big an opportunity this is, and there is a really big opportunity here," Target spokesman Eric Hausman said.

Many consumers are said to still be shopping at the end of closing time -as upwards of over 1,800 Target locations around the U.S. regularly close their stores at 10 p.m. - so extending a couple hours every day is projected to increase their sales.

Target is set to implement these measures in time for the upcoming holidays, but could be implemented as early as this month.

According to an American Time Use Survey, just 0.3 percent of the population in the U.S.  say they were shopping after 10 p.m. This may not seem like much but 0.3 percent of the U.S. population translates to almost one million potential consumers - 926,236 to be exact.

Target will still have to implement more strategies if they plan on competing with franchise corporations like Wal-Mart. However, Target has always been known for being very conservative, so the fact they're more willing to push for change and implement different strategies must excite any fans of Target for the future. 

TagsTarget, Wal-Mart, Eric Hausman