Sears.com Expands Online Shopping Experience With Virtual Showroom of Art, Books, Movies, Software and Music
As more customers turn online for their entertainment shopping needs, Sears is supporting this increased demand through a large-scale expansion of its online store. This month, at Sears.com, customers can find a huge selection of books, DVDs, music, software and even customizable art, nearly quadrupling the number of products available on sears.com.
"We want Sears.com to become a key online resource for all entertainment and home needs, in addition to the quality appliances, tools and apparel for which we are already known," said Imran Jooma, Sears vice president of e-commerce. "The expanded offering allows us to better serve our customers and offer a lot more products than we're able to provide in our stores."
The first step toward creating this expanded online inventory came in December 2007 when Sears.com partnered with Alliance Entertainment Corporation (AEC) to offer movies and music to its online shoppers. Sears.com now houses more than 250,000 titles searchable by format, genre, artist and release date. Visitors also can sample previews of the hottest music and movie titles.
In April Sears.com expanded its For the Home Online Store by partnering with ArtSelect.com. Sears' customers now have a complete art gallery and custom frame shop at their fingertips. After finding a favorite art piece, visitors can create a custom finished product by choosing the mat and frame. The design can be viewed against a wall color, saved in a gallery, or shared with friends. Featuring more than 300,000 image options for art prints and canvas reproductions, as well as mirrors and tapestries, the frame shop fits any style of home decor.
Also in April, Sears.com partnered with Baker & Taylor to offer an online book assortment consisting of more than 600,000 products. Customers can search by title and category, as well as order books in advance of release date.
The downloadable software store launched in February as a co-branded site hosted by Digital River. Customers can purchase and immediately download to their PC or laptop software programs ranging from finance, games, security and system utilities.
"As a multi-channel retailer, we want every customer's experience with us to be seamless," said Jooma. "For example, if a customer is in a Sears store and is looking to buy a DVD, and the product is not available, the customer can order the DVD from a computer kiosk in-store, and the shipping fees are waived."
For more information, or to experience the enhanced offerings in art, books, movies, software and music, visit www.sears.com.
About Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Sears, Roebuck and Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: SHLD), is a leading broadline retailer providing merchandise and related services. Sears, Roebuck offers its wide range of home merchandise, apparel and automotive products and services through more than 2,400 Sears-branded and affiliated stores in the United States and Canada, which includes approximately 926 full-line and 1,100 specialty stores in the U.S. Sears, Roebuck also offers a variety of merchandise and services through sears.com, landsend.com, and specialty catalogs. Sears, Roebuck offers consumers leading proprietary brands including Kenmore, Craftsman, DieHard and Lands' End -- among the most trusted and preferred brands in the U.S. The company is the nation's largest provider of home services, with more than 13 million service calls made annually. For more information, visit the Sears, Roebuck website at http://www.sears.com/ or the Sears Holdings Corporation website at http://www.searsholdings.com/.
About a21
a21 Group, Inc. (OTC: ATWO) (BULLETIN BOARD: ATWO) , (www.a21group.com) is a leading online digital content company. Through ArtSelect (www.artselect.com), SuperStock (www.superstock.com; www.superstock.co.uk; and www.purestockx.com), a21 delivers art framing, high quality images and exceptional customer service. a21 and its companies, with offices in Florida, Iowa, and London, provides valuable solutions to key business partners and customers in the art and wall decor and stock image industries.
About Baker & Taylor, Inc.
Baker & Taylor, Inc. (www.btol.com) is a global information and entertainment services company that offers books, videos, music, games and services to libraries, educational institutions, and retailers. Based in Charlotte, N.C., the company has been in existence for over 180 years, developing long-term relationships with major suppliers, including book publishers, movie studios, and music labels. Baker & Taylor maintains one of the largest combined in-stock book, video and music inventories in the United States, and services the broadest customer base in the industry. Baker & Taylor is majority owned by Castle Harlan Partners IV, L.P., a leading private equity investment firm.
About Alliance Entertainment Corporation
Alliance Entertainment, a Source Interlink company, is the largest wholesale distributor of pre-recorded music and movie DVDs, representing virtually every recording company and movie studio in the entertainment industry. Visit their web site at www.aent.com.
About Digital River, Inc.
Digital River, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRIV), a leading provider of global e-commerce solutions, builds and manages online businesses for software publishers, consumer technology manufacturers, distributors, online retailers and affiliates. Its multi-channel e-commerce solution, which supports both direct and indirect sales, is designed to help companies of all sizes maximize online revenues as well as reduce the costs and risks of running an e-commerce operation.
Founded in 1994, Digital River is headquartered in Minneapolis with offices in major U.S. cities as well as Cologne, Germany; London, England; Shannon, Ireland; Luxembourg, Luxembourg; Stockholm, Sweden; Taipei, Taiwan; Tokyo, Japan; and Shanghai, China. For more details about Digital River, visit the corporate Web site at www.digitalriver.com.
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SOURCE: Sears, Roebuck and Co.
CONTACT: Dara Cothran, Euro RSCG Worldwide PR, +1-212-367-6814,
Dara.Cothran@eurorscg.com; or Kirsten Whipple, Sears Holdings,
+1-847-286-3037, kwhippl@searshc.com
Web site: http://www.sears.com/
http://www.a21group.com/
http://www.aent.com/
http://www.digitalriver.com/