The other day I walked into a Sears store, asked for a price comparison on a dishwasher, and watched the sales associate access Krillion for a price comparison look-up. Terrific to see our system being adopted by a trend-setting retailer to power an in-store local search kiosk.
If you take a look at what
Sears is doing across its channels, you'll see similar sorts of innovation. Sears is an iconic brand when it comes to channels. It's the multichannel giant - storefront, web and catalog. The Sears customer service approach is embodied by its new slogan "shop your way, where shopping revolves around you, 24/7".
What Sears is doing in cross-channel is expanding some boundaries. As DM news
reported:
Sears Holdings Corporation is touting its multichannel retail capabilities under the banner of "ShopYourWay," and using its Web site, catalogs and other marketing vehicles to showcase services such as the ability to buy online and pick up in-store, mobile commerce and in-store Web shopping kiosks.
In addition, the company has been increasingly dedicating more catalog real estate to calling out its multichannel capabilities, with various calls to action encouraging readers to shop online or buy online and pickup in store.
What's interesting is that Sears is pushing hard on in-store pickup to drive customers cross-channel. Sears calls it "Buy Online, Pick Up In Store" — and makes it really easy for customers to take advantage of this convenience feature:
- items available for store pickup are marked with a special icon on the website
- easy proof of purchase when you arrive at the store (email printout, credit card)
- in-store kiosk at the special Merchandise Pickup area for fast check-in
- Ready-in-Five (minutes, that is) guarantee
- get it yourself or send someone else
Sears knows that people who elect to pickup in-store will often purchase additional items once they get there - boosting the average order value (AOV). What we know is displaying LOCAL product availability to a customer who has decided WHAT to buy tends to boost conversion to purchase. And that's why it makes sense to embed that data into your online site. Enabling cross-channel purchase and adding these sorts of convenience features is something that multichannel retailers of all stripes have implemented or are evaluating. The big guys jump in first, set expectations and habits with consumers, and eventually other retailers feel the need to add it, too.
Cross-channel isn't just something retailers are looking at, of course. Manufacturers are also enthusiastically adopting it because Krillion lets them tell their customers which local retailers have the product they want, in store, right now. This is convenient for the customer. Also, the manufacturer closes the deal, and the retailer gets the transaction.
We're seeing a lot of interest from manufacturers of larger items that are typically purchased offline. But, again, once shoppers start to expect this convenience feature, we predict that they'll demand it for all types and sizes of products.
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