Accompanied by a cross-functional mainland team, I recently visited the highest-grossing Sears store in the world, located in the Plaza Las Americas Mall, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

It's a spacious, luxury-laden showcase for such items as high-end perfumes and cosmetics and carries several designer clothing lines exclusive to the island, as well as a full complement of furniture for every room of the house.

My visit was both incredibly inspiring and informational--I literally followed the physical flow of merchandise from warehouse to store, which greatly enhanced my understanding of our "virtual" online store on Sears.com. I was impressed by the pride of the PR teams, as well as the instant and overwhelming warmth and kindness they showed us. All in all, a successful and rewarding research expedition!

Labels: Puerto Rico, Sears Communitiy

We recently launched MySears and MyKmart to connect with our customers and to start the dialogue flowing. These two welcoming communities feature discussion forums, ideas, product reviews and member profiles – speaking of members, we now have more than 250,000 registered names and that number grows every day.

People who visit our sites can ask product questions, request product recommendations, raise service concerns and provide their own suggestions and advice. Members also get access to special offers and coupons as a thank you for their participation in the communities.

The backbone

OpenID technology helps power MySears and MyKmart and allows visitors to use a single login for all their online interactions. They can even log in using their existing IDs and passwords from websites such as Facebook, Yahoo! and Google. Moving forward, we will continue to leverage innovative technology and customers will be able to share photos, connect with friends, read reviews, etc., across many social platforms.

Soon, we’ll launch a reputation and rewards program that gives customers the opportunity to increase their status, and online recognition, based on their overall activity in the community. The people who move up the status ladder will receive extra perks. Stay tuned for more details.

Vision

And while this program and OpenID are wonderful tools that make it easier and more fun for our customers to connect with us and each other, our vision for these communities extends far beyond promotions and technology. We want customers to constantly be in contact with us, to share their thoughts and feelings and let us know what’s working and what isn’t. The more we converse, the more we can reshape their online retail experience for the better. And that leads to stronger, longer relationships.

Join us. Visit www.MySears.com or www.MyKmart.com. It’s simple. And after you register, tell us what you think about our sites in the comments section, below. We want to hear from you, your friends and your families.

Labels: MyKmart, MySears, Sears Communitiy