Sears and Kmart give shoppers a place to surf
While it’s not quite the same as using the web to drive multi-channel sales, Sears Holdings Corp. is making the Internet a key part of its store makeover plans.
For about a year Sears Holdings, No. 7 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, has been constructing Internet cafés during the remodeling of some Kmart and Sears Grand Central stores.
So far about 84 Kmart stores and 74 Sears Grand Central stores have been outfitted with Internet cafés. The cafés, which feature about four computer stations networked to the Internet and to a common printer, give customers about 60 minutes of free Internet access each time they make a visit.
Sears Holdings, which operates 1,333 Kmart stores, 1,095 specialty Sears stores and 935 regular Sears stores, has no immediate plans to update all of its bricks-and-mortar locations with Internet cafés. But the retailer will add more cafés as the company remodels more stores.
The Internet cafés are commerce-enabled, meaning customers can find products and complete a transaction online if they can’t find the merchandise on the store shelf. “We are trying to make shopping a little easier for our customers,” says a Sears Holdings spokeswoman. “She can drop the kids off at the café while she continues to shop.”
Back...
