Hudson`s Bay will expand store-based web selling

Hudson's Bay Co., Canada's largest retailer, is pleased with the initial results of a test of using web-enabled store systems to sell appliances at its Zellers discount chain and will probably roll out the program to other Zellers stores in markets where Hudson's Bay does not have a Bay store, David Alves, general manager, merchandising and marketing for HBC.com, Hudson's Bay's web operation, tells Internet Retailer. Hudson's Bay has sold appliances through the Bay stores; Zellers does not sell appliances. "The test showed us that there are no barriers in the customer's mind to buying appliances from a mass marketer," Alves says. The stores will stock four or five samples. Customers can order those samples or other models through a web-connected terminal in the electronics section of the store.