Sears’ E-Business Transformation

Author: Alina SouzaHafez ShurrabAnas El Ghazouani

Contents

1. Sears’ E-Business Transformation______________________________11.1. Transformation Approach__________________________________11.2. Transformation Challenges_________________________________3

2. Sear’s Critical Capabilities____________________________________42.1. Building E-business Capabilities in Sears_____________________42.2. Enabling and Disabling Aspects of Sears' Integrating Approach____6

3. Recommended E-business Strategies____________________________83.1. Positioning a Variety of Merchandise Online___________________83.2. Successful Brands Acquisition and Alignment_________________11

4. Discussion________________________________________________12

5. Conclusion________________________________________________13

References____________________________________________________15

Figures & Tables

Figure 1: E-business Value Model__________________________________5

Figure 2: Key E-Business Initiatives at Sears__________________________7

Figure 3 Determinants of Firm Process_______________________________9

Figure 4: Scheme Sears__________________________________________10

Figure 5: Sears & Lands' End_____________________________________12

Table 1: Sears Partnerships between 2000 and 2002____________________3

Table 2: Advantages and Disadvantages of The Product Mix____________10

Table 3: Main Differences between Lands' Ends and Sears______________11

II

1.Sears’ E-Business Transformation“How will you evaluate its current approach to making an e-business transformation?”

The increasing growth of the Internet as a dominant power in the world in the 1990s has convinced a number of big businesses to focus their efforts in order to exploit what it can offer in terms of new markets, new opportunities and better ways to reach clients and satisfy their needs. Sears was not an exception in this ambition despite the initial scepticism of its then CEO Arthur C. Martinez.

The emergence of new online based markets such as Amazon.com had changed the landscape of the business world in the sense that new ways to reach and sell to customers have appeared. For many big businesses, resting on their laurels and continuing to rely on customers coming to their stores did not represent a viable option as e-business appeared to be moving slowly to establishing itself as the future of business.

Sears therefore had no choice but to embrace the new developments in the business world and pursue a transformation towards the e-business era. This was not however a smooth process as a number of obstacles appeared in the way which affected the success of Sears’s transformation. The process that Sears embarked on could be divided into two phases, the first one started with the launch of Sears’ online debut in 1996 and the second at the turn of the millennium which was materialized through establishing several partnerships with different other businesses. At the end of the second phase in 2002, the process is yet to be deemed a success and new CEO Garry Kelly is faced with a number of issues that need resolving for Sears to finally complete its e-business transformation.

1.1.Transformation Approach“How will you evaluate its current approach to making an e-business transformation?”

(1996-1999)

In 1996, Sears launched its first website. The website did not offer customers the possibility to purchase products, it only offered information on a number of these products with the aim of increasing the profile and more importantly testing the response of the clients. This was a cautious approach which was not uncommon at the time. After the positive responses that Sears received with its website, the company decided the following year to sell its Craftsman tools online. This was not a random decision as Sears’ Craftsman tools carry a respected reputation and command a strong clientele. This decision could be seen then as another cautious step from Sears towards e-business.

1

The next step that Sears has taken was relatively a major one. In 1999, as a part of Sears.com, PartsDirect was launched featuring over 4 million parts and accessories. The thinking behind the website was that it represented a new channel where Sears could market its products. Sears had also included the services it usually offers with its products such as repairs and warranty to its online customers in a clear sign that the company now embraces the online world and views it to be as significant to its success as the clients who come to their stores and markets.

Sears started focusing its efforts on promoting its presence online by raising the profile of its website Sears.com on television as well as on print commercials. New holiday products and features such as comparison aids and online gift cards were introduced to the website. Moreover, Sears started using banner ads on the network MSN in an effort to improve the marketing. At the end of the year, the online division alone at Sears included 100 full-time employees.

It can be remarked that after the initial caution in 1996 and 1997 which was marked by a strategy based on testing the water and evaluating online opportunities in the market, Sears had adopted a more aggressive policy in 1999. The last year of the century has witnessed the launch of more products, more focus on online marketing and a clear strategy to promote Sears’ presence online through its website and the variety of services that it offers to its online customers.

2000-2002

The turn of the millennium has seen Sears continue its efforts to exploit the online market and work on improve its marketing as well as its profile. The main strategy that has been adopted towards the realization of these plans has been establishing a number of partnerships with different companies in a variety of fields to extend Sears’ strength to markets where it is not traditionally strong at. A selection of the partnerships that Sears established is represented in table 1.

In addition to those efforts, Sears has installed kiosks in their stores so that clients can research the products they aim to purchase without waiting for the help of personnel. Special sections on the Sears’ website focusing on providing information on automotive maintenance parts were also added to help customers gain as much knowledge on the products that are on offer at the store.

It is clear that Sears has adopted a more aggressive strategy in the new century. Sears did not stop at strengthening its products but cast its net to markets where it did not in the past. Those strategies have given Sears a stronger hold on not only its traditional markets but also new ones. However, despite these efforts, Sears are still faced with a number of challenges in its attempt at an e-business transformation. In 2002, it has completed the

2

acquisition of Lands’ End which is one of the biggest apparel Internet catalogue companies. This move has opened new opportunities for Sears but also introduced with it new issues.

Table 1: Sears Partnerships between 2000 and 2002

Partner Joint Venture Objective

IBM Thegreatindoors.com Dedicated to help customers with home decorating

Home Improvement (Bob Vila)

Bobvila.com Specialized in home improvement solutions

Sun Microsystems -

Promotes homes that are Internet-connected

American Online - Makes American Online Sears’ main ISP and provides

links to Sears.com

Viant Corporation - Implements more products to Sears’ online market

Xpedior - Integrates products lines into Sears website

E.piphany - Monitors preferences of customers through collecting

marketing and technical metrics

1.2.Transformation ChallengesWhat are the key issues that need to be resolved in order to make a successful e-business transformation?

The transformation to an e-business organization is far from simple and Sears has discovered that. Sears has faced a lot of challenges since 1996 in its journey to establish itself as an e-business power but despite the big strides that Sears has made, there are still issues to be resolved. One of those issues is the challenge to standardize the different businesses under Sears. CEO Alan Lacy talked about how for a number of years, Sears has allowed each business to function separately which led to a disorganized growth and an unclear idea of the structures of systems at work.

For Sears to complete a successful transformation to e-business, it is

3

necessary that it deals with this issue. Sears can keep working in the same way or make all departments work as a unit. What is important though, is that there is a clear idea and connection between the sectors to ensure that the e-business aspect is run in the appropriate way to suit the organization strategy.

The acquisition of Lands’ End is also another complicated issue. Initially, this deal has been met with a lot of optimism. However, there appears to be some questions to answer, Land’s End has a traditionally unique clientele, it relies on the exclusivity of the brand. Whereas, Sears focuses on providing products for a mainstream customer base. Both strategies come with their advantages but it is difficult to use them both in parallel. Sears will have to walk a tight line to ensure taking every advantage possible.

Schumpeter (1934) introduced the theory of development and new value creation which aims at creating new products, markets, production methods and sources for supply. With the emergence of e-business, this has become just as if not more vital than before. Sears will therefore have to explore new ways to enforce its position and gain competitive advantages. It is not enough for Sears to satisfy its current market, it will have to look for new markets and create new products and come up with a way for these products to be needed to ensure new customers.

2.Sear’s Critical Capabilities2.1.Building E-business Capabilities in Sears“What are the critical capabilities that are required for successful e‐business transformation?”

E-business transformation requires appropriate organizational change capabilities and corporate culture. Further, the dynamics of e-business environment and the rocket speed of its evolution make embedding extra organizational change elasticity more demanding before taking any step ahead (Wu & Hisa, 2008). The case of Sears shows how executives were skeptic in the beginning regarding the idea of e-tailers and internet, and how some of them had even thoughts that only fanatics feel enthusiastic to engage in internet (Ranganathan et al., 2004). That kind of antithetical mindset and behavior can stand against any organizational change. Typically, the pressure of competition stands behind why traditional managers may sometimes adopt new business strategies (Swilley et al., 2012), which is exactly what happened for Sears in 1990s (Ranganathan et al., 2004).

According to Hafeez et al. (2006), business performance relies heavily on e-business adoption attitudes and a sound business strategy whereby organization, people and technological dimensions are properly aligned with each other. Also, these dimensions should be integrated in a way that enables effective supply chain integration. For instance, when it comes to technology integration, some characteristics may hinder integrating a supply chain that facilitates better

4

business performance such as reactive short-term planning and large pools of inventory (Hafeez et al., 2006).

Barua et al. (2001) proposed an e-business value model as shown in figure 1, where e-business drivers are directly influenced by the organizational capabilities required for creating a successful e-business transformation. One driver is the customer orientation of IT in terms of information and transaction. In other words, it is a question if a company has the technological capability embedded internally or through partners to enable online customers to access all products related information, customize orders, personalize the website content, interact with other customers, and get supported and instructed by standard information packages such as FAQs and by service representatives. As for the transaction experience, online customers should be also able to submit and modify orders, securely pay online, and automatically get notified of their order status. From that, a company could be regarded as qualified in terms of IT customer orientations if it is possible to integrate the required technological infrastructure and skills (Barua et al., 2001).

Figure 1: E-business Value Model - source (Barua et al., 2001)

Another e-business driver could be the supplier orientation of IT in terms of quality, supply-continuity, relationship management, and transaction. A capable e-business for a company would enable sharing of information matter suppliers and help them in improving their performance such as customer feedback, process quality and inventory information, updates, and unexpected changes in demand and schedule. Additionally, suppliers should be able to get supported by providing them special online communities or forums, technical instructions and FAQs, and online evaluation reports. Finally, suppliers should be able to

5

track orders online and get paid automatically and smoothly. In addition to the same technical capabilities required for IT customer orientations, such degree of supply chain integration also requires adopting advance partnership and collaboration approaches (Barua et al., 2001).

On the other hand, the readiness of both customers and suppliers may be lower than needed to create a successful e-business. For instance, suppliers may lack capable internet-based systems to engage in electronic commerce. Besides, customers may consider engaging in electronic commerce not really attractive. Apart from that, capabilities that can support the internal orientation of IT and system integration are extremely important for e-business transformation. Internal employees are supposed to efficiently drive different information systems and follow the best practices of information management. Also, the portability of the different systems used by different parties, from customers to suppliers, has to be achieved, which requires both technical and organizational adapting capabilities. In general terms, the possible suppliers, partners, customers, skills, technology, and corporate culture are the main elements by which the e-business value are created (Barua et al., 2001).

2.2.Enabling and Disabling Aspects of Sears' Integrating Approaches of E-business

“How has Sears been building its key capabilities for e‐business? What are the advantages and disadvantages of its approaches to building e‐business capabilities?”

Sears has undertaken many initiatives since the top management decided to integrate e-business to Sears’ retailing industry. These initiatives are shown on a timeline in figure 2. If such initiatives are to be analysed based on how they contributed to build e-business capabilities, many advantages and disadvantages can be addressed. To start with the point where Sears.com has been launched in 1996, the information related to Sears’ items and products could be found on the website, which contributed to the e-business driver of customer orientation of IT in terms of information accessability. After one year, online sales of only craftsman tools have been made possible for customers, which reflects how Sears was cautious regarding e-business initiatives (Ranganathan et al., 2004). In our opinion, the slow and cautionary behaviour of e-business integration Sears followed from 1996 to 1999 was ineffective, and it could be seen as a disadvantage of how Sears’ top management approached e-business. The fast adoption and complete integration of e-business outweigh the competitors (Abraham et al., 2005).

In 1999, Sears started to accelerate introducing new initiatives to empower its e-business transformation capabilities after creating a good partnership with IBM. Launching PartsDirect was a good move to generate featuring advantage of parts, accessories, tools, and equipment. However, the addition of this feature lies in the after-sale services PartsDirect offered since customers could aid do-it-yourself principle using the extensive assembly and repair manuals

6

provided by PartsDirect (Ranganathan et al., 2004). Later in the same year, Sears introduced the online purchasing option for appliances (Ranganathan et al., 2004). Building relationships is very important for e-business transformation (Wu and Hisa, 2008), and the partnership with IBM made it technically possible for Sears to introduce more effective solutions of e-business in a tighter timeframe. However, that was not enough to clearly see the real value of e-business and get tangible benefits out of it. Therefore, we see this timing of Sears’ integrating approach for different individual categories of e-business patterns as a disadvantage. Instead, they could have introduced PartsDirect and online sales of appliances together, exploiting the visits made by customers to any of both purposes. That is why Ranganathan et al. (2004) describe that stage of Sears’ e-business transformation as Crawling in Cyberspace.

Figure 2: Key E-Business Initiatives at Sears - source (Ranganathan et al., 2004)

The transformation approach of Sears started to significantly improve in 2000. Increasing Sears’ online presence was emphasized and many strategic relationships have been formed with new partners such as Home Improvement (Bob Vila), Sun Microsystems, AOL, Viant Corporation, Xpedior, and E.piphany. Each relationship contributed to the empowerment of e-business transformation capabilities in terms of technical and organization infrastructure and skills (Ranganathan et al., 2004). It could be said that the most important of advantage of this approach is when Sears started to intensively look for appropriate partners to support their e-business transformation strategies, and introduce extensive initiatives that exceeds the boundaries of one sales category. Another advantage is overcoming the concern of cannibalization risk threatens the company’s sales and market share from retail market.

Sears has made a big move by allying with different retailers such as Oracle and Carrefour to launch an electronic business-to-business marketplace where their 50,000 suppliers are combined under one trading platform, which was called GlobalNetXchange (GNX) (Ranganathan et al., 2004). In addition to the benefits of procurement cost cutting and purchase processes streamlining, we

7

see this aspect of e-business transformation approach as a great advantage for e-business sustainability and development since it encourages even suppliers to absorb online culture in their businesses and align themselves to the e-business environment to be more competitive. Besides, GNX enabled the traceability of orders for all engaged parties, and that would increase the possibility of keeping customers satisfied.

Another important milestone of Sears’ e-business transformation strategy was when Sears acquired Land’s End to involve it on its website as an apparel category since Land’s End was considerably successful. Sears did not know if Land’s End as a brand should be combined with its brand. There have been significant functional differences between both websites, and selling both brand products together might dilute the brands (Ranganathan et al., 2004). In general, importing external expertise and reputation to build additional technology and applications infrastructure is counted as a big advantage for this strategy. However, special considerations should be given to marketing in terms of brand influence.

3.Recommended E-business Strategies3.1.Positioning a Variety of Merchandise Online“Sears sells a variety of merchandise ranging from appliances to apparel. How should it position itself online? Should it sell all of its goods, or focus on a few selected goods? Why/why not?”

Obviously, Sears need to find a balance between Internet-and non-Internet related activities. The company should strive to have a strong Internet presence that would complement its physical store business. Sears’s Internet presence would allow them to reach remote customers and capture mindshare among a younger customer base.

As mentioned by Afuah (2003, pp.51), a firm’s business model gives it a competitive advantage in its industry, enabling the firm to earn greater profits than its competitors basically answering questions regarding the profit site to enter, value offered to customers and how to provide that value. In the Sears’ case, clear understanding of what customers’ value is crucial to the implementation of a prosperous strategy. In any kind of strategy that Sears intend to invest or develop, Internet plays a key role and needs to be exploited with maximum of effectiveness.

Considering that Sears is capable of offering different kind of products and new lines of electronics, computers, office equipment, small appliances to cookware, the strategy implemented by the company in August 2000 attempted to attract consumers to initially buy a certain product but once the costumer could quickly and easily find another items, they could purchase those too.

8

Adding new products or line extensions means that the company can take advantage of the fact that the consumer is already using the service even when looking for something else and consequently could capture new market niches

Figure 3: Determinants of Firm Process - Source (Afuah, 2003)

The idea of diversifying risk by selling multiple product lines over the Internet is a good proposition for Sears. This is justified by Sears business scale and previous business strategies adopted through the years. Since Sears already benefits from a well-oiled supply chain, long relationship with diverse suppliers, a huge customer base, it would mainly need to focus its resources into developing a technological infrastructure that would provide a great user experience.

It does not seem to be a good strategy for Sears’ business to focus on a few selected goods. In the retail sector, diversity is beneficial once that are strong competitors such as Amazon or Wal-Mart competing for the same clients. Focusing on just one niche would cause severe consequences in case of failure of the particular niche in question. Of course it depends on factors like product life cycle, marketing objectives and the strategy adopted to create market share. After all, some products will have a natural decline after a period of time and the market always tends to be more difficult in this phase. Market strategy can differ according to stage/phase of the product life. When the product reaches the maturity stage, it is time to start planning about the market share earned so far. Subsequently, the same reasoning applies to the Sears market share, even that products line offered by Lands’ End became “weak” they still have the option to keep loyal customers. The scheme below shows some advantages of selling all of its goods as steps of a basic strategy.

Afuah et.al. (2003) claim that technological change results in products or services that render existing products and services noncompetitive, enhances them, or allows the old and new to coexist. When the change results in existing products noncompetitive, incumbents with dominant market positions in the

9

industry may be reluctant to invest in new technology for fear of cannibalizing their existing products and services. In the Sears case, technological change could enhance existing products allowing them to remain competitive because a product line can attract buyers with different preferences increasing profitability because of the market segmentation.

Figure 4: Scheme Sears

Similarly to product features, services and timing, product mix is also a form of differentiation. Afuah et.al (2003) point out that customers prefer one-stop shopping and the firm can use data gathered on its customers to suggest personalized choices from them. Sears used many forms of differentiation in their strategy such as linkages and low cost strategies.

The table below shows some important advantages considered for selling all of its goods and also the disadvantages:

Table 2 - Advantages and disadvantages of the product mix.

Should it sell all of its goods?

Why? Why not?

1. Customers prefer one-stop shopping 1.Risk of new products “cannibalize” sales of older ones

2.Variety 2.Singular focus (it is possible to keep focusing on a specific product and make long-term plans)

3. Use data gathered on its customers to suggest personalized choices

3.Customer feedback is more consistent and could help to developing new products easily

4.Growing business to diversify risks

5.Capitalize on its established reputation

10

3.2.Successful Brands Acquisition and AlignmentWhat will you decide about Lands’ End? Should it be integrated into Sears’ e‐business, or should it be a separate entity? What are the implications of each of these alternatives?

First of all, after Sears acquired Lands’ End it became necessary to plan a strategy for implementing a company-wide business process for the new entity. In other words, Lands’ End should be integrated into Sear’s business. However, it is not simple to connect distinct information systems, share information and keep the existent consolidated customer base. Understanding the basic differences between these companies can help us visualize the implications of the integration and also point out the reasons for making the integration successful.

Basically the problem lies in the fact that Lands’ End was already a very successful direct-only apparel company and had great brand appeal. Nonetheless, there are huge differences between their product line, customer base and appeal when comparing to Sears. Sears hoped to attract Lands’ End online customers. The table below shows some important differences between the two companies:

Table 3: Main differences between Lands' Ends and Sears

Main differences Lands’ Ends SearsCustomers Affluent and conscious

customersBroader customer base

Approaches to information technology

Relied on in house expertise for IT and web operations

Relied on external expertise to build their technology and application infrastructure

Another crucial difference between the companies is the distinction regarding product returns and marketing approach. The implication of failure in a new integration strategy could dilute the Lands’ End brand, known for a solid brand name. This is the main risk involving the decision of integrating both e-business. Hence, with a successful integration both companies would share and synchronize customer information among their databases, billing systems and general applications. Before achieving that, a re-engineering process would be required and in the meantime a transition period, which involve factors beyond customer relationship management, dynamic supply chain and business-to-business commerce need to be developed. It is a long-term commitment resulting in an increasing change to be implemented carefully; in other words, it is not a week’s operation and it requires special attention to the differences between the clients since the main objective is to increase market share.

Sears has another characteristic that would be really meaningful for the Lands’ End integration in a unique entity that is the experience that the company has in business-to-business initiatives once the company had invested a lot in e-business initiatives since the 1990s and had successful experiences.

11

The figure below presents some important implications of Sears’ strategy adopting Lands’ End as a unique entity:

Figure 5: Sears and Lands' End as a Unique Entity Strategy Implications

4.DiscussionIt is fair to claim that Sears has made giant strides towards turning into an e-business. The position of the company in the middle of the 1990s is vastly different to its position in 2002. This transformation process has started slowly and cautiously with Sears launching an only information website before fully embarking in the online market. This was followed by providing customers with the opportunity of online purchases limited to already successful solid products. A strategy designed to minimize losses and ensure a successful start to Sears’ online market. The next phase came with establishing a variety of partnerships to extend Sears’ hand and reach new market in new domains.

After all these efforts, Sears find itself in 2002 in a very tricky position. One the one hand, the progress made over the past 6 years is evident and Sears does indeed have a more modern and updated profile. On the other hand, there is a feeling that the task is far from done and that there is plenty more to achieve before completing the transformation. One of the issues facing Sears is that the hands-off approach that it adopted when it came to its different branches has led to a growth and structure that is not in synch with the rest of the organization. Sears therefore has a massive job in unifying its business into a coherent entity. This is easier said than done as we know from experience that the centralization of business can lead to problems in terms of creativity and productivity. When an idea or a creative new way to perform comes, it can take a complicated process before it comes to fruition in a large organization like Sears with a centralized system. That is the balance that Sears has strike if it wants to achieve the perfect mixture between independency and unity.

12

When it comes to its strategy with customers and products, Sears already enjoys a strong position. It has solid relationships with suppliers, a strong brand name as well as a large customer base. Although Sears is not in a critical position, a business that does not evolve and develops risks falling behind. That is why Sears cannot afford to be satisfied with what it already has. It is important for example that Sears looks for new ways to increase the user experience of its customers. At a time where technology is dominant, the need for distinguishing oneself is vital and Sears has to work hard on improving its infrastructure to achieve that. Furthermore, the success of competitors such as Amazon is forcing Sears to be more diverse. Despite the different partners and fields that it has attempted to explore, Sears still has a lot of markets and products that it has not reached.

Another major issue facing Sears in 2002 is its partnership with Lands’ End. The acquisition of Lands’ End can lead to significant competitive advantages and great rewards if used in the right way. This is not an easy task however. The differences between Sears and Lands’ End are significant when it comes to their strategies, their target clients and their use of technology. Both approaches have their merits but merging them together requires compromise finding a middle ground. Whereas for example Lands’ End has customers base that is conscious of the brand, Sears targets the mainstream. It is a challenge therefore to not alienate Sears’s customers because of exclusively designed products or Lands’ End customers because of products that do not cater to their specific needs. The consequences of either outcomes could cause serious problems as Sears could lose a large portion of its customers and Lands’ End could lose the uniqueness and exclusivity of its brand.

Facing these issues is not going to be easy for Sears and the challenges for Garry Keller will require a lot of careful planning. It is important though to remember that Sears has already come a long way from where it were in 1996. The experience that Sears had gone through in its e-business initiatives should provide a confidence boost as it shows that Sears is capable of rising to the challenges. The integration of and transformation witnessed in the organization should must also serve as a reminder for Lands’ End that Sears can adapt to the new demands of the market and embrace change.

5.ConclusionSears’ E-business went through sequential transformations and challenges over the last 18 years. The company went from a powerful candidate to be an early e-commerce leader in the mid-1990s to a threatened company forced to rethink their entire business model by startups and discount stores in the beginning of 2000s. As part of the efforts to achieve a more efficient role in the online competition and pursue the desired e-business transformation, Sears adopted the strategy of seeking partners to start building the structure required. However, faced various issues after Land’s End acquisition and the dilemma

13

involving the risks of a complete e-business integration with Sears mainly caused by the fact that both companies were characterized by differences between customers profile.

Many factors are required to run a successful e-business initiative once there is a dependence on Internet- enabled applications like well-planned e-commerce web sites and supply chain management. In the effort to achieve higher market share, increase number of customers and sales and obtain competitive advantage along competitors, Sears was exposed to certain vulnerability in their business initiatives from 1996 to 1999, probably caused by the lack of confidence in an incredibly fast change in customer’s behavior. One view, expressed by Afuah et al. (2003) is that firm’s competence allows competitive advantage offering its customers better value. Despite that, this advantage is only sustainable when is linked to the difficulty of substituting capabilities. In other words, it is not possible to replicate Sears’s historical context in which capabilities were developed.

Richard White (cited in Thompson 2003) claimed that Sears took advantage of the U.S. postal system and railway in the early 20th century just as transportation costs were falling. In contrast, the company has not done the same with the web. When it comes to Sears’ urgency to build its information technology capability the company bet in collaborations focusing on integrated multiple lines.

Our approach considers that future Sears business strategy should keep investing on technology integration, product mix to diversify risks and customer- service channels. Another strategic action would be following the main competitors business model, Amazon for example is having thin profit margins to keep investing in support to achieve larger sales base (Anders, 2013).

Another important finding regarding future strategies is the current importance of an e-business model strongly influenced by organizational capabilities as part of the e-business transformation. One of the desired results that Sears is looking for is basically to personalize and take advantage of one-shopping buyers and also using wisely data provided by the loyal customers or clients that purchased on their website before.

Given that the challenges faced by Sears are related to e-business, technology is the key to the current strategy but it is not enough. Not only e-business initiatives need to be adapted and improved but also market strategies and decisions regarding how the company can keep differentiating from other retailers. To attract customers and sell multiple ranges of products, Sears must be aware of the scenario and the vast necessity of high investments in research and development to arrange a digital storefront working in an optimal way for clients.

14

References

Abraham, D., Gale, J. and Krell, T. 2005. Organizational transformation and e-business implementation. 1st ed. Bradford, England: Emerald Group Pub.

Afuah, A. and Tucci, C. 2001. Internet business models and strategies. 1st ed. Boston: Irwin/McGraw-Hill.

Anders, G. 2013. No stores? No salesman? No profit? No problem for Amazon [Online]. Available at: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/520801/no-stores-no-salesmen-no-profit-no-problem-for-amazon/[Accessed: 11 May 2014].

Barua, A., Konana, P., Whinston, A. and Yin, F. 2001. Managing e-business transformation: opportunities and value assessment. Sloan Management Review, 43(1), pp.36-44.

Hafeez, K., Keoy, K. and Hanneman, R. 2006. E-business capabilities model: validation and comparison between adopter and non-adopter of e-business companies in UK. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 17(6), pp.806-828.

Ranganathan, C., Shetty, A. and Muthukumaran, G. 2004. E-business transformation at the crossroads: Sears' dilemma. Journal of Information Technology, 19(2), pp.117-129.

Swilley, E., Hofacker, C. and Lamont, B. 2012. The evolution from e-commerce to m-commerce: pressures, firm capabilities and competitive advantage in strategic decision making. International Journal of E-Business Research (IJEBR), 8(1), pp.1-16.

Thompson, D. 2013. The Amazon mystery: What America’s strangest tech company is really up to. [Online]. Available at: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/the-riddle-of-amazon/309523/[Accessed: 11 May 2014].

Wu, J. and Hisa, T. 2008. Developing e-business dynamic capabilities: an analysis of e-commerce innovation from I-, M-, to U-commerce. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 18(2), pp.95-111.

15