Sears Canada Inc. is reporting strong growth in web sales, which rose 27% last year to $120 million from $94 million in 2001, chairman and CEO Mark A. Cohen tells InternetRetailer.com. Nearly all of those sales are incremental to catalog and store sales, thanks largely to a complex fulfillment system that reaches nearly all parts of Canada, even its most remote communities, the company says.
Cohen adds that, with more than 27 million site visits in 2002, Sears.ca is expected to continue steady growth this year in traffic, sales and profitability. "All are expected to grow in 2003," he says.
Part of that growth, he says, will come from web site enhancements this spring.
Meantime, Sears.ca relies on a far-reaching fulfillment system to make sure customers get what they order. "93% of Canadians live within a 10-minute drive of a Sears location," a spokesman says. "We have more than 2,000 locations throughout Canada where customers can pick up online orders or return products."
Sears Canada, which is a subsidiary of Sears, Roebuck and Co. that operates its own distribution and fulfillment system, serves customers through some 2,200 locations, including 122 full-line stores, 43 furniture-and-appliance stores, 143 independently dealer-operated stores and 2,000 independent agents that receive deliveries and process returns for catalog and online sales.
Sears Canada's web site, Sears.ca, carries nearly all products available in Sears Canada's catalogs and stores, and online and catalog shoppers receive free shipping to most Sears locations, including most of its 2,000 independent agents. The agents are typically small, remotely located retailers, such as florists, that maintain a separate part of their facility for processing delivery and returns of Sears products.
Sears Canada handles its shipping through its wholly owned subsidiary, SLH Transport.
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