Shop Your Way

Sears Holding Corporation is the 4^th largest broadline retailer in the United States and Canada. They have a wide variety of products and services including home appliance retailer, tools, lawn and garden, consumer electronics and automotive repair and maintenance. There are many brands under Sears Holdings which include Kenmore, Craftsman, Die Hard, Joe Boxer, Apostrophe, Covington, Country Living, as well as many more.

This year Sears Holding Corporation was the winner of the 2nd Annual Colloquy Loyalty Awards for their Shop Your Way rewards program. The program is accepted by all Sears Holdings brands including; Sears, Kmart, Sears Outlet, Lands’ End, Great Indoors, Sears Auto Center, and Home Services. The number of people with memberships is now in the eight digits and increasing. The program is aimed to target every brand. It works by every time a customer buys from a Sears Holding brand, the customer gives the sales associate their card or phone number to earn points. The customer receives points by how much they spend and then can cash in points for money off their purchase. It keeps customers coming back because they want to add up their points. They also receive email notifications through this about special offers going on in the store. All they need is a valid email address or phone number for special offers to be sent to. Either way there is no harm in signing up if you save money. Customers are receiving free money! They can sign up online or at the store during their purchase. Every dollar they spend turns into 10 shop your way points. Every 1,000 points turns into a dollar back to the customers. This is basically is every 100 dollars turns into a dollar back. This doesn’t seem like that much but it does add up. Why not receive a reward for shopping at Sears Holdings. This keeps customers shopping there rather than other appliance stores. When they spend enough they even get to be VIP members. There are three levels of this: silver, gold, and platinum. The level the regular customer gets depends on how much money they spend there a year. The VIP members get more points for the money they spend, resulting in more money to spend at the store. Customers who shop often get rewarded more, which makes them come back, and customers who rarely shop at Sears Holdings will pick it over another similar chain because they can receive more money back for what they spend. Even if it cost more customers think they are getting more money back than they actually are.

Even though it is free, there is a tradeoff. Customers’ emails are flooded with different promotions going on in the company. It can be beneficial if they are regular shoppers, but to those who are not it is simply a hassle. Even if they are a frequent shopper, the wide variety of topics emailed to them most likely do not pertain to their interests or needs. Some deals are very good like the coupon promotion for a free article of clothing at the outlet! Since so much information is sent, most do not see this email because it gets lost in the rest. This either keeps customers looking at all of them in hopes to receive the free coupon, or unsubscribe to the program to keep from receiving the flood of emails. In all, it creates loyal customers, keeping them updated and interested in the current promotions throughout the year.

HCN, . "Sears' Shop Your Way wins loyalty award." homechannelnews. Home Channel News, 09 14 2011. Web. 10 Oct 2011. .

"About Sears Holdings Corporation ." searsholdings. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct 2011. .