Sears expands Amazon deal, but is it enough?
Struggling retailer’s stock up and down
Shoppers who buy tires from Amazon will now be able to have them installed at local Sears Auto Centers across the country. But while the expanded program may be a convenience for customers, it’s unlikely to salvage Sears, which is fast running out of options as it struggles to survive.
The two retailers formed a partnership in May in which customers who bought tires from Amazon could choose from among 47 Sears Auto Centers, in eight cities, to have the tires installed at a time that worked for them. Now, the service will be available nationwide.
“The response from Amazon customers around this program has been extremely positive,” Mike McCarthy, vice president and general manager of Sears Automotive, said in a statement, adding that the expanded service means that customers can now visit hun- dreds more stores.
The program garnered some positive buzz when it was first announced in the spring, with retail watchers saying it was a bright spot of innovation for a retailer that has primarily relied on shuttering stores, selling popular brands and borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars from its CEO to stay afloat.
Tuesday’s news that the tire service would become available nationwide also appeared to please investors, as Sears’ stock price rose 12.6 percent Tuesday to close at $1.25. It slipped to $1.22 a share on Wednesday before rebounding to close at $1.26 a share Thursday.
Some retail watchers say the Amazon tie-up is a stark reminder of how far Sears has fallen.
“Sears used to be the gold standard of selling,” says Bob Phibbs, CEO of consultancy the Retail Doctor. “This partnership with Amazon is a new low, allowing customers to buy products online from an entirely different retailer and pick it up in-store without having to interact with employees. Making it easier to buy tires is a weak attempt to win over Amazon’s customers, because Sears has so few of their own. This isn’t a turnaround strategy. It’s a distraction.”
The expanded tire service comes a few days after Sears Holdings announced that it would close roughly 5 percent of its remaining Sears and Kmart locations because they were losing money.
It will shutter 33 Sears and
13 Kmart locations in November, leaving it with fewer than
800 full-line stores in the U.S. As recently as 2012, the company had 1,305 Kmart stores and 867 full-line Sears stores in the U.S.
S&P Global Market Intelligence has estimated that Sears lost about $251 million in its second quarter.