If consumers purchase an item on Sears.com, the item can now be picked up at a Kmart location and vice versa. This implementation shows the retailers’ attempts to accommodate the growing expectations of its consumers.

“When we launched this expansion of free store pickup, we made sure it was simultaneously available on all of our mobile platforms, including the mobile Web experiences for Sears.com, Kmart.com, ShopYourWay.com and each corresponding mobile app,” said Leena Munjal, senior vice president at Sears Holdings, Chicago.

Aiming to please
The feature allows the user to opt to send a friend or family member for pick up. At Sears locations, in-vehicle pick up remains an option and purchases are brought to the customer’s car. The retailers promise a no more than five-minute wait time for pick ups.

There are more than 2,000 participating locations in the United States.

Sears and Kmart executed the addition preluding to busy months of back-to-school and holiday shopping. The supplement will likely encourage more sales due to the convenience of nearby locations.

It is also clear the retailers want to satisfy their customers by making it as easy as possible to make and retrieve a purchase. Through this move, Sears and Kmart make it possible for nearly anyone to shop through the retailers.

“Our Shop Your Way members and customers are at the core and future of our business and that’s why we invest in better technology, deals, integrated retail options and quality products to ensure our members always get more,” Ms. Munjal said. “Our goal is to provide more choices to our customers and members and what we are looking to achieve is to make it easy and convenient for our members to shop across all our channels, whether in-store or online.”

The retail giants produced an informational YouTube video, announcing the news and details to consumers.

Sears, Kmart Expand Free Store Pickup

Searious shopping
Sears rolled out a new mobile-driven service enabling customers to pick up their online purchases at any of its stores without leaving their car following a successful test.

Using the Shop Your Way mobile app, customers can have their purchase delivered to their car within five minutes of arrival. The program was in beta test for a couple of months, later rolled out to several test markets and is now available across all Sears stores (see story).

Kmart and Sears ramped up their Shop Your Way membership program with holiday-time deals and mobile application updates during the 2013 holiday season.

The mobile innovations included a new feature in the Shop Your Way app called Shop’In that allowed consumers to check-in at a store to browse merchandise, sales and coupons. The retailers also waived layaway service fees, offered a Pay in Store feature online and provided free in-store pickup (see story).

Sears and Kmart intend to continue to better consumer experience.

“As a leading integrated retailer, we’re continuing to find new ways to blur the boundaries between offline and online commerce by enhancing our mobile and online technologies to create new conveniences for our Shop Your Way members,” Ms. Munjal said.

Final Take
Caitlyn Bohannon, editorial assistant for Mobile Commerce Daily, New York