5 years ago, hedge-fund billionaire Edward S. Lampert merged Sears and Kmart and since then, the merchants have been shrinking.
So Sears has quickly created web sites and mobile-phone apps to help with their sales calling this campaign “Shop Your Way”
This is a way for Sears to play catch up with its competitors
Lampert promised because of the merger, that the sum of the entity would be eventually worth more than its parts.
Hasn’t happened Sears’ revenues fell 7.8 % last year to $46.8
bill
Online sales have increased in the past two years:◦ $2.7 Billion in 2008 (6% of total
company sales)◦ More than WalMart’s $1.7 Billion
In November 2009, critical month for shopping:◦ Unique visitors grew by 22% to
Sears.com and 42%to Kmart.com according to Compete, Inc.
Launched in Joliet, Illinois Converted an entire Kmart store to a pick-
up only site for internet orders. Complete with a drive-through
A team of 180 e-commerce whizzes began searching for a way to sell Kenmore Appliances and Craftsman tools in this age of iPhone apps and Twitter
Some of the e-commerce workers have experience from Orbitz.com and Amazon.com
Recently, the workers tested their phone creations:◦ Selected customers in the store◦ Took them to their laboratory upstairs◦ Testers sit across from subjects through a plate
glass window and speak through microphone◦ Camera watches the subjects eyes look around
the computer screen
Social networking with the help of Chicago Company, Viewpoints Network:◦ Launched MySears.com and MyKmart.com and
now have 400,000 users◦ Log in with facebook accounts and ask questions
about specific products and make reviews
Amazon is the largest online retailer with record revenue
Sears Marketplace◦ Sears took a page from Amazon and eBay Inc.
and created Sears Marketplace◦ Lists items from other sellers on its pages in
exchange for a cut of sales. Every purchase made, Sears collects a commission
of 7% to 20% Its total online merchandise options now tops 10
million items
Sears Personal Shopper◦ Allows customers to photograph passerby’s shoes
or other object of desire◦ Send picture to sales worker◦ They will find them for sale
◦ Amazon launched a similar app in 2008