The internet has made e-commerce, relatively new but growing rapidly, a new avenue of sales potential. Every internet user is a potential customer (Holden, Belew, Elad, Rich, & Gulbrandsen, 2008).
Like other major retailers, Sears has both physical and e-commerce storefronts. Starting out in the 1880’s as a mail order catalog company, it expanded to retail stores in 1925, and moved into department store formats as early as 1934 ("A Narrative History," n.d.) As in-store sale slow, it is aggressively pursuing customers through its online store.
Appliances are a major component of Sears’s inventory, even in e-commerce. Items, like microwaves, are available in a variety of brands, styles, colors, and prices. The shopper decided to shop for an above-range microwave to replace her broken one, a previous purchase from the Sears brick n mortar store. The on-line store front offers options to narrow down a search. This includes color, drastically reducing choices to six for a bisque finish ("Beige and Bisque Microwaves," n.d.). Price and measurements helped this shopper choose the GE option. Unlike visiting a physical store, wandering through the displays, and dealing with determined salespeople, the selection process took five minutes. Once the item is selected and added to the shopping cart, the next step is to check out. This is easier if the shopper is already signed in with an account at Sears. To encourage customers to do this, Sears offers incentives. These include the accumulation of points per dollars spent through its affiliated Shop Your Way reward program. When a purchase is made, the customer earns points to apply as cash off towards a future purchase ("Earning Points," n.d.). This is similar to other business membership incentives like AMC’s Stubs rewards program that accumulates cash back for every $100 in purchases made ("It Pays to Join AMC Stubs," n.d.). Sears’ Shop Your Way offers a minimum of 10 points are earned for each dollar spent ("Program Information," n.d.). Shoppers who have signed in can also access online coupons for cash off or bonus points for different deals each week. Sears also offers a free ship to store option if the customer does not want to pay for shipping. This shipping option has become common practice for online sellers who also have physical storefronts. Walmart and Best Buy are just two of the major retailers that also offer free site to store shipping options (Tuttle, 2011). Shipping costs clearly matter to online shoppers. …show more content…
A survey conducted by Lab42 (as cited in Roesler, 2014) concluded that free shipping was an important factor for 96% of those polled. Although free shipping can be more expensive for companies to offer when items are heavy, like with 50 plus pound microwaves, the cost is significantly less when the item can go on a truck of other stock already bound for the customer’s preferred store site. Even more important, that customer pickup traffic gets them into the physical store to, hopefully, make additional purchases (Tuttle, 2011).
Customers are also offered several protection package options for their purchase. If the customer does not select one, the Sears site offers it again on the shipping option page. This tenacity for repeating profitable but non-essential options is typical behavior, whether a customer is shopping for a flight or an appliance. Online storefronts have an advantage over in-store sales. In-store, the cashier only asks once about optional warranties but web storefronts can keep the option popping up until the purchase is complete. Sears also utilizes something called persistent cookies (Cookie and Security Scan Report, 2016). If a shopper gets distracted or leaves the Sears site and returns later either on the same device or on another, the previous item is found still sitting in the cart. This eliminates the customer being forced to re-search for the item, saving time …show more content…
A check with weebcookies.org found a total of 8 third–party domains, 14 persistent cookies, and 21 session cookies during a shopping/browsing session (Cookie and Security Scan Report, 2016). Session cookies will clear when the browser is closed but third-party and persistent cookies can present a concern for customers who may not realize their activities can be tracked over multiple sites and for extended time periods. This degree of monitoring is simply not available to sellers when customers shop at physical
Like other major retailers, Sears has both physical and e-commerce storefronts. Starting out in the 1880’s as a mail order catalog company, it expanded to retail stores in 1925, and moved into department store formats as early as 1934 ("A Narrative History," n.d.) As in-store sale slow, it is aggressively pursuing customers through its online store.
Appliances are a major component of Sears’s inventory, even in e-commerce. Items, like microwaves, are available in a variety of brands, styles, colors, and prices. The shopper decided to shop for an above-range microwave to replace her broken one, a previous purchase from the Sears brick n mortar store. The on-line store front offers options to narrow down a search. This includes color, drastically reducing choices to six for a bisque finish ("Beige and Bisque Microwaves," n.d.). Price and measurements helped this shopper choose the GE option. Unlike visiting a physical store, wandering through the displays, and dealing with determined salespeople, the selection process took five minutes. Once the item is selected and added to the shopping cart, the next step is to check out. This is easier if the shopper is already signed in with an account at Sears. To encourage customers to do this, Sears offers incentives. These include the accumulation of points per dollars spent through its affiliated Shop Your Way reward program. When a purchase is made, the customer earns points to apply as cash off towards a future purchase ("Earning Points," n.d.). This is similar to other business membership incentives like AMC’s Stubs rewards program that accumulates cash back for every $100 in purchases made ("It Pays to Join AMC Stubs," n.d.). Sears’ Shop Your Way offers a minimum of 10 points are earned for each dollar spent ("Program Information," n.d.). Shoppers who have signed in can also access online coupons for cash off or bonus points for different deals each week. Sears also offers a free ship to store option if the customer does not want to pay for shipping. This shipping option has become common practice for online sellers who also have physical storefronts. Walmart and Best Buy are just two of the major retailers that also offer free site to store shipping options (Tuttle, 2011). Shipping costs clearly matter to online shoppers. …show more content…
A survey conducted by Lab42 (as cited in Roesler, 2014) concluded that free shipping was an important factor for 96% of those polled. Although free shipping can be more expensive for companies to offer when items are heavy, like with 50 plus pound microwaves, the cost is significantly less when the item can go on a truck of other stock already bound for the customer’s preferred store site. Even more important, that customer pickup traffic gets them into the physical store to, hopefully, make additional purchases (Tuttle, 2011).
Customers are also offered several protection package options for their purchase. If the customer does not select one, the Sears site offers it again on the shipping option page. This tenacity for repeating profitable but non-essential options is typical behavior, whether a customer is shopping for a flight or an appliance. Online storefronts have an advantage over in-store sales. In-store, the cashier only asks once about optional warranties but web storefronts can keep the option popping up until the purchase is complete. Sears also utilizes something called persistent cookies (Cookie and Security Scan Report, 2016). If a shopper gets distracted or leaves the Sears site and returns later either on the same device or on another, the previous item is found still sitting in the cart. This eliminates the customer being forced to re-search for the item, saving time …show more content…
A check with weebcookies.org found a total of 8 third–party domains, 14 persistent cookies, and 21 session cookies during a shopping/browsing session (Cookie and Security Scan Report, 2016). Session cookies will clear when the browser is closed but third-party and persistent cookies can present a concern for customers who may not realize their activities can be tracked over multiple sites and for extended time periods. This degree of monitoring is simply not available to sellers when customers shop at physical