Sears Tests Smaller, Appliance-Only Outlet

After years of closing stores, selling real estate and leasing parts of underperforming locations to other retailers, Sears has opened Sears Appliances, a store that breaks significantly with the venerable chain’s typical format in size, product selection and strategy.Based in Fort Collins, CO, the 10,000-square-foot location–a departure from Sears’ usual 138,000-square-foot multi-department stores–will focus on appliances only, which the company considers one of its strongest categories. Other similar stores could follow suit, with a focus on apparel, for example.Sears doesn’t think of the new location so much as a smaller store but as a large home-appliance department in a stand-alone space, featuring refrigerators, dishwashers, washers, dryers, ranges, wall ovens and vacuums, says Leena Munjal, Sears senior vice president, customer experience and integrated retail.“Fort Collins is a great example of how we are focusing on our best categories, stores and members, and how the value of a physical store combined with Sears’ digital capabilities is a win for our members and this community,” Munjal says, referring to Sears’ Shop Your Way loyalty program. “Physical stores are very important to our strategy, but as we transform our company we are looking at how different stores can serve our members who utilize all of the digital capabilities we have to offer.”The Sears Appliances store features digital-only signage and interactive displays, created in-house at Sears, that enable Shop Your Way members to view the home appliances in sample kitchen vignettes, Munjal says. The “Kitchen Creator” display uses a 122-inch screen to help shoppers visualize how new appliances would work in their kitchen.“Shoppers can select common kitchen layouts and appliances and further customize the experience by choosing colors and finishes,” she says. “In addition, other vignettes showcase the innovative Kenmore Pro line, and other leading washers, dryers and hot water heaters. … The in-store materials complement how we’re using digital innovation.”The target market for the new store and its path-to-purchase marketing is “thriving families, many of whom have looked to Sears for years as their ‘go-to’ store for home appliances,” Munjal says. “They’re typically highly engaged online and offline, are homeowners, family- [and] career-focused and seeking quality.”Sears has used a mix of digital and traditional media as well as “local social influencers” who have shared news of the store with blog posts to drive traffic into the store, Munjal says. The Shop Your Way platform, which has “tens of millions of members,” has built relationships with consumers and has been used to “localize and personalize offers and incentives that matter most to our members,” she says.Shoppers can use the Sears mobile app to call up the specific appliances they might have been looking at earlier elsewhere, for example, to remind them that they’re due to replace a water filter and what kind they use, or to send coupons or other personalized offers to save time and money, Munjal says.During the Fort Collins grand opening celebration over Memorial Day weekend, Sears undertook a “robust local marketing campaign” that included a YouTube video (see below), a ribbon-cutting ceremony with city mayor Wade Troxell, media availability with company executives, free shipping for members who purchased appliances over the weekend, and a chance to win gift cards to be used toward purchase of said appliances, Munjal says. In addition to profitability, Sears’ measures of success for the store will include Shop Your Way member engagement and member feedback. “Ultimately, we want to ensure that customers living within the Fort Collins area have full access to the top appliances for their home and view Sears as the best destination for appliances for years to come,” says Munjal.During the Sears Holdings Corp. annual meeting in May, chairman and CEO Edward Lampert said that the company will roll out similarly smaller, category-focused, digital-heavy stores. “We are excited about it,” he said. The company’s fourth quarter 2015 earnings report listed home appliances, home services and apparel as Sears’ top three leading categories.

Sears Tests Smaller, Appliance-Only Outlet

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