Sears Broadens Online Offerings to Include 'Jewelry & Watches, 'Recreation/Game Room'
Retailer Also Adds Research Capability for Tires, Batteries
Whether a diamond or a pool table makes your eyes sparkle, now you can buy it on sears.com -- or research it online, then buy it at a local Sears store.
Sears, Roebuck and Co. has expanded its online offering by adding two new e-commerce categories to sears.com: "Jewelry & Watches," and "Recreation"/"Game Room." This is in addition to today's announcement that sears.com has introduced an automotive category to allow consumers to research online the appropriate tires and battery for their specific vehicles. (See separate Sears Automotive press release.)
As the soon-to-be-launched Sears ad campaign says, "Sears. Where else?"
The addition of fine jewelry and watches online is reminiscent of Sears roots: Richard W. Sears and Alvah C. Roebuck first teamed up in 1888 to specifically sell watches and jewelry. Today, Sears has the largest assortment of IGI (International Gemmological Institute) certified diamond jewelry of any national retailer, and the guarantees to back them up.
Sears also is a leading retailer in selling such parlor games as Ping-Pong ® tables and pool tables -- and sells more automobile tires than any other U.S. retailer.
"For the past two years, we have continually evolved and enhanced sears.com, leveraging the strengths of Sears and responding to customer feedback," says Dennis Honan, vice president and general manager of Sears Customer Direct, which includes sears.com and Sears specialty catalogs. "In response to our enhancements, our sears.com traffic, sales, and influence on in-store Sears purchases continue to increase."
Recently, sears.com quietly changed its look and navigation, based on customer input and user studies. "Immediately after we began listing all product categories and subcategories on the home page in early August, our online sales increased," said Honan. Site changes in August included the ability for customers to make four, instead of three, side-by-side comparisons if similar products. "We expect that our enhancements will make sears.com even easier to shop for the upcoming Holiday season," added Honan. During the 2000 Holiday shopping season, sears.com sales were four times its online sales for Holiday 1999.
At sears.com under the "Jewelry & Watches" heading, shoppers now find 10 categories of fine jewelry: Bridal diamonds, fashion diamonds, gemstone and gold jewelry, including bracelets, earrings, pendants, necklaces and rings, as well as tradition certified diamonds and watches.
In addition, the jewelry and watches "Buying Guide" offers purchasing tips, suggestions for maintaining and cleaning fine jewelry and answers to frequently asked questions. Under Buying Guide "useful terms," shoppers can learn that the letters "D" through "Z" indicate the color of diamonds -- ranging from colorless, to near colorless, faint yellow, very light yellow, to light yellow. And that there are 100 points to a carat, just as there are 100 pennies to a dollar. On sears.com shoppers will find 50 useful jewelry terms.
The new sears.com "Recreation" category heading features parlor games under "Game Room." Games include Dartboards, Ping-Pong ® tables, pool tables, soccer and hockey tables, and the necessary accessories for each of these games.
Since America trusts Sears, shoppers are buying significant family purchases from sears.com -- such as refrigerators, big-screen TVs, lawn tractors and treadmills.
Sears, Roebuck and Co. is a leading retailer of apparel, home and automotive products and services, with annual revenue of more than $40 billion. The company serves families in the U.S. through Sears stores nationwide, including approximately 860 full-line stores. Sears also offers a wide variety of merchandise and services through its Web site, http://www.sears.com/ .
SOURCE: Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Contact: Ann Woolman for sears.com, +1-847-286-7079, awoolma@sears.com ,
or Maureen Jenkins for Sears jewelry, +1-847-286-9017, mjenk07@sears.com
Website: http://www.sears.com/