Sears Holdings Corp. (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) has introduced a drive-through shopping service. Shoppers who order merchandise online and pick it up at the store can have their orders brought to them without having to get out of their cars.
According to a blog on The Washington Post web site, the service is part of an effort by Sears to get more customers to use the retailer’s mobile app. So after placing the order online, the customer has to download the Sears app. At the store, shoppers pull into the designated parking spots and use the app to notify the store that they’re there. If the item isn’t brought out within five minutes, the shopper receives a $5 coupon.
Sears customers have to share identifying details about their vehicles, such as make, model and color (though not license plate information), and can have those data saved for future trips.
The report said the service will be restricted to Sears stores, but could be extended to Kmart stores if successful.
According to a report by IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark (a division of IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y.) mobile sales made up 16 percent of all online sales during the last holiday season, an increase of 46 percent from the year before.