Sears has expanded its in-vehicle pick-up service to include exchanges and returns, giving shoppers an added convenience — and, less optimistically, another reason not to leave their cars and walk into a store.
Available to members of Shop Your Way, Sears’ loyalty club, the free in-vehicle service guarantees that an associate will be at the customer’s car within five minutes of the customer arriving to take back or exchange the unwanted item.
It is an expansion of the service, launched in February, that lets online shoppers pick up their purchase at a nearby store without leaving their car. The customer arranges for the car-side service on sears.com and then lets the store know he or she has arrived at the designated pick-up/exchange/return lane via the Shop Your Way mobile app.
“Buying what you really want should be easy – that’s why we continue to make it more convenient to pick-up, return and exchange items that you have purchased right from your car,” Leena Munjal, senior vice president at Sears Holdings, said in a press release. “We’re all living busy, on-the-go lives, and this latest expansion to Sears integrated retail conveniences means that you can spend less time making a return or exchange and more time shopping.”
Asked if it might be counterproductive to give shoppers the option to not go inside a store where something might catch their eye, Sears spokesman Brian Hanover said, “Our focus is on providing shopping convenience to our members, letting them shop whenever, however they choose.”
Though he declined to provide metrics quantifying the success of the in-vehicle pick-up service over the past six months, he said members have given the service among the highest marks of any service Sears has introduced, and the positive feedback led to the decision to expand it to returns and exchanges.
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“It’s a change and it’s about doing what works for our members and giving them what they want,” Hanover said.
Sears was among the pioneers when it first launched its buy-online-pickup-in-store option, now widespread among retailers, 13 years ago.
While the in-vehicle service is only available at Sears full-line stores, the company is looking closely at bringing it to Kmart, Hanover said.
If Sears exceeds the guaranteed five-minute window, the customer gets a $5 coupon good for his or her next in-store purchase, he said.