Amidst the online book price war between Amazon.com, Walmart.com and Target.com—and Barnes & Noble’s Inc. entry into the electronic book reader business—Sears.com is launching its own merchandising tactic.
Sears.com, a part of Sears Holdings Corp., No. 7 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, is rolling out a program that will reward customers for qualifying book purchases on Sears.com, Target.com, Walmart.com and Amazon.com.
Once customers have purchased a book online from any of those retail sites, they can e-mail the receipt to Sears.com and receive a credit equal to the purchase price of a $9 book and apply the credited amount toward a purchase of $45 or more on Sears.com. “The $9 credit can be used at Sears.com on the purchase of any items, so it's like getting the books for free,” says Sears senior vice president of online Imran Jooma.
Sears is the latest big chain or web-only retailer to draft and implement a strategy related to selling books online. On Monday, Target.com (No. 20) announced that certain pre-ordered books will be sold online for $8.99, essentially matching the prices of Amazon.com and Walmart.com, and qualify for free shipping. In a bid to be the web’s low-price leader for all types of products, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Friday started offering some pre-ordered popular titles for $9 each on Walmart.com (No. 13). The move was quickly matched by Amazon (No. 1).
Sears says its new program is designed to keep the retailer competitive in online book sales, but also drive customers to make more diverse purchases on Sears.com. “We believe this program will benefit the thousands of customers who buy books every day by putting more money into their pockets,”
says Jooma.
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