Sears is offering a gift for last-minute online shoppers who pick up their online holiday orders in a store. A 20% discount off select merchandise bought online and picked up in store. The promotion is good through its flagship Sears.com site and includes merchandise categories such as furniture, home decor and apparel. The in-store pickup option is free and Sears says it can have all online orders ready to pick up inside of five minutes. Sears says some stores will remain open until 6 p.m. local time on Christmas Eve.
Why Discount During Peak Shopping Season?
The World is not just purely about online sales anymore but the marrying of online and offline channels. The promotion Sears is offering can only be executed with a retailer that has both online and physical retail stores. The strategy ensures consumers can buy the products they want for the holiday season and Sears can be proactive against etailers such as Amazon. In essence Sears is offering a deal many etailers cannot come close to matching. The retailer is offering same day pickup at a discount, whereas online only etailers have resorted to free expedited shipping which takes time and no discount on the product. Who is the winner? Sears of course as they get to leverage the infrastructure they have built to create a better consumer experience.
How do the Dollars and Cents Work Out?
From a financial perspective when customers buy online and pickup in store nearly 50% of the time something else is purchased offsetting that 20% discount. In addition, with holiday purchases comes returns when what was thought as the perfect gift turns out to be anything but. Returns can be handled locally at the Sears location eliminating that headache for the purchaser or gift receiver. A clicks to bricks or omnichannel strategy leads consumers to spend up to 7% more than the additional order when factoring in both pickup and returns. So what seems like a steep discount has some financial return in addition to acquiring a customer in which Sears may not normally have obtained.
