Miguel Bustillo and Geoffrey Fowler take a deep look at Sears Holdings' myriad online retailing initiatives -- from Web sites that offer various delivery and pickup options to mobile apps that allow
consumers to check out shoes from every angle. Some analysts feel that success or failure online could be a matter of life or death for the venerable Sears and Kmart brands, they report.
The overall strategy is dubbed "Shop Your Way"; the main Sears site, for example, suggests that shoppers buy online and then pick up their purchases "within five minutes" at a nearby store. "We
have taken the good ideas out there and evolved them," Imran Jooma, the company's svp of e-commerce, tells Bustillo and Fowler. "We are trying to create an assortment online that is almost limitless."
The online business has increased by double digits in the past two years, Sears says, and Internet Retailer estimates it did $2.7 billion in sales in 2008 while Wal-Mart did
$1.7 billion online. Some observers believe that online could represent 20% of sales -- up from 5% to 7% today for most retailers -- in the near future. "If they can do this right, it may save the
company," says Maggie Gilliam, president of consulting firm Gilliam & Co.
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