Sears gets a new web site, with easier navigation and more functionality
Sears, Roebuck and Co. will re-launch Sears.com next week featuring easier navigation and expanded capabilities, Alan Lacy, Sears chairman, told the Shop.org Annual Summit meeting in New York Thursday morning. Among the major features will be an expanded and easier to use appliance section, he said, building on one of Sears.com’s strengths since it created a web site in 1997. “Sears is committed to expanding our leading position in appliances; we made the web site re-launch a critical part of that.”
Lacy noted that the re-launch builds on two strong elements—one being the acquisition last year of Lands’ End, with its highly regarded web operation, and the other being its online experience going back more than 15 years with its investment in the Prodigy online service, along with IBM and CBS. “We learned a great deal from that experience,” he said.
Lacy noted that Sears took a go-slow approach when others were caught up in the dot-com frenzy. “We were committed to keeping the customer experience consistent across channels,” he said. “We were happy to take an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary path. It has helped us in the long run.” Sears.com was profitable last year, Lacy said, a year ahead of schedule.
He also said that Sears over the past few years has made a significant commitment to coordinating information technology, marketing, store operations, logistics and human resources. “It wasn’t easy in a big operation to get resources aligned around a new opportunity,” he said. “But we believed in the opportunity and the necessity of making Sears.com a multi-channel retailer.”
Today, nearly 20% of appliance sales are influenced by online research and many other categories reach 15%, he said.
Lacy also reported that Sears’ order-online, pick-up-at-the-store service has been successful. 50% of online sales the week before Christmas last year were picked up at the store. Sears offered the service in 2001 with no marketing. It began promoting the service in Boston mid last year, with a national marketing push starting in May this year. The biggest challenge has been making sure the store inventory is available. The system now sends a message to the store to have an associate pick and hold the product, then send an e-mail to the customer telling her that it’s available and being held. Lacy reports that 94% of orders are picked and the customer informed in a timely fashion, Lacy said.
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