Sears' strategies for web technology, community engagement, and customer service

Sears Strategies

Sears: Business Strategy and Analysis

Sears, officially names Sears, Roebuck and Company, is an American chain of department stores which began its journey to success in the field of mail-order product distribution and has grown to one of the largest and most successful department store chains in the United States. Sears business model has long been attributed to a focus on customer service and satisfaction, and in recent years, Sears has begun work to change how its customers interact with the company in stores and online. In utilizing strategies to upgrade web technology, become a facet of goodwill and community giving, and in structuring itself under the business model of customer service and continued improvements to customer affordability and financing, Sears remains a top contender in the U.S. department store field.

Upgrading Web Technology and Increasing Web Presence

In an effort to keep up with competitors and the field of technology within the retail market, Sears has continuously made improvements to its technological aspects, including its website, web-marketing division and presence in the blogosphere. Sears has further implemented a strategy for its 2011 holiday season in order to generate business, web-presence and a rising over competitors. By reducing the number of elements on its web site, Sears has improved both the performance and variability of the destination, according to Keynote Systems, Inc., which ranked number one in Keynote's mobile ranking index (Tsirulnik, 2011, p. 1).

Sears has not only implemented its streamlining strategy, but has set to improve its web-based features for its customers in terms of privacy and reliability, by setting new standards for web-privacy and customer identity and financial data protection as well as minimizing facets of the old website that were deemed bulky and time-consuming. In allowing customers the ability to browse the site in a manner which is efficient in layout and allows these customers to find what they are looking for in a more time-efficient manner, Sears hopes to improve its web-based sales significantly.

Such website improvements have further been moved to the realm of the smart phone, with its sleeker site design also set to launch via platforms such as iPhone and iPad applications allowing for more reliable and efficient service to customers.

II. Goodwill and Community Giving

Sears' additional strategy for improving media and public-presence through community goodwill programs and giving have also played a significant role in the company's successes in recent years and continues to be one of Sears' most notable attributes. Sears has long-noted its own position as one of the nation's largest and broadest retailers with a presence in thousands of communities across the country. Because of this fact, Sears continues to recognize that the members of these communities are essentially the people who keep Sears in business, and the company has endeavored to continuously give back to these individuals in any way possible in an effort to earn customer trust and build lifetime relationships (Sears, 2011, p.1).

Sears has long imposed its strategies for community giving in areas as public as its sponsorship of programming such as "Extreme Home Makeover: Home Edition," which stocks homes with Sears products and affords them free services. In addition to a community presence in this area, Sears has focused significant community engagement efforts on its Supporting or Heroes and Communities program (SHC), which provides financing and resources to individuals who face adversity and display the courage to overcome challenges further aids communities and neighborhoods through volunteerism, monetary donations and merchandise donations (Sears, 2011, p.1). Such strategy has proven increasingly successful in asserting Sears' position as a truly American brand focused not only on financial gains and retail market presence, but based in the values of giving and community responsibility.

IV. Affordability and Financing

With areas of specialization covering a massive spectrum of services in areas such as roofing, automotive technician, optical, appliances, clothing and housewares, Sears has long focused on a structure of business based in affordability and financing in an effort to draw in new customers and keep existing customers coming back for more. In nearly every area of Sears' department stores, affordable financing options have been set in place to ensure that the products offered by the company do not exceed the financial reach of its average American customer.

Sears' basic structure, rooted in the ideals of affordability and easy financing, have allowed the company to rebound significantly from the effects of the economic recession. In recent years, no economic group has shopped more within Sears than the American middle class, who have continued to shop in droves for affordable and top-quality merchandise. This financial model and structure has even been picked up by high-end companies, who have chosen to market themselves within department stores like Sears and Target in order to continue generating revenue that has largely disappeared in the wake of the recession (Dizard, 2009, p.10).

In recent years, Sears has acquired merchandise from many luxury brands largely within their clothing, optical, accessories, shoes, home, and appliance departments, but its insistence on providing these brands at reasonable prices, or with financing options, allows customers the ability to shop with ease rather than with the restriction that is still present in so many portions of the economy and marketplace.