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    Personal Shoppers at Sears

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    Shashi Ranjan Kumar
    Sears implemented a personal shopper program called "The Elves" to address concerns customers felt intimidated by the large size and variety of merchandise in Sears stores. Elves were trained personnel shoppers available at a "Wish Station" to guide customers through the entire shopping and sales process. The program aimed to increase sales volumes and average transaction values by providing more individualized attention. While the program was initially successful, Sears faced challenges in maintaining relevance and customer buy-in as the novelty wore off. Recommendations included offering permanent personal assistants to loyal customers and specialized assistance during holidays, along with loyalty programs and social initiatives to generate ongoing interest.

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    Personal Shoppers at Sears

    Uploaded by

    Shashi Ranjan Kumar
    7 views14 pages
    Sears implemented a personal shopper program called "The Elves" to address concerns customers felt intimidated by the large size and variety of merchandise in Sears stores. Elves were trained personnel shoppers available at a "Wish Station" to guide customers through the entire shopping and sales process. The program aimed to increase sales volumes and average transaction values by providing more individualized attention. While the program was initially successful, Sears faced challenges in maintaining relevance and customer buy-in as the novelty wore off. Recommendations included offering permanent personal assistants to loyal customers and specialized assistance during holidays, along with loyalty programs and social initiatives to generate ongoing interest.

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    Sears implemented a personal shopper program called "The Elves" to address concerns customers felt intimidated by the large size and variety of merchandise in Sears stores. Elves were trained personnel shoppers available at a "Wish Station" to guide customers through the entire shopping and sales process. The program aimed to increase sales volumes and average transaction values by providing more individualized attention. While the program was initially successful, Sears faced challenges in maintaining relevance and customer buy-in as the novelty wore off. Recommendations included offering permanent personal assistants to loyal customers and specialized assistance during holidays, along with loyalty programs and social initiatives to generate ongoing interest.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    7 views14 pages

    Personal Shoppers at Sears

    Uploaded by

    Shashi Ranjan Kumar
    Sears implemented a personal shopper program called "The Elves" to address concerns customers felt intimidated by the large size and variety of merchandise in Sears stores. Elves were trained personnel shoppers available at a "Wish Station" to guide customers through the entire shopping and sales process. The program aimed to increase sales volumes and average transaction values by providing more individualized attention. While the program was initially successful, Sears faced challenges in maintaining relevance and customer buy-in as the novelty wore off. Recommendations included offering permanent personal assistants to loyal customers and specialized assistance during holidays, along with loyalty programs and social initiatives to generate ongoing interest.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 14

    Personal Shoppers at Sears

    By
    Pooja Gadhdhyan: 09FT-124
    Shashi Ranjan Kumar: 09FT-143
    Sidhdharth Sehgal: 09FT-151
    Pratik Tibrewal: 09FT-162
    Varun Sethi 09FT-170
    Vipul Gupta: 09FT-176
    Sears – The Canadian Giant
    Estd. 1953 – player in the evolution of Canadian retail

    1973 – became a $1 bn firm

    2005 - Sourced goods from more than 3000 suppliers

    2006 – was within 10 minutes’ drive reach of 93% Canadians and sales
    of more than $ 6 bn

    Vision:
    “Sears is committed to improving the lives of our customers by providing
    them quality service, products and solutions that earn their trust and
    build lifetime relationships”
    Sears
    Convenience of a one stop
    shop

    70% of women shopped


    for gifts upto a year before
    the holidays

    Research encouraged
    SEARS to segment holiday
    shoppers into categories
    Sears – Internal Research
    Customers feel intimidated by

    Size of the store

     Variety of merchandise

    Volume of traffic
    The Elves
    Idea of Internal Research
    Personnel Shoppers
    Widespread in the US
    Basic idea to provide customers with a level of
    individual attention
    Add to the ambience
    Positive effect on the brand
    Help to draw traffic
    New level of interactivity
    Best in business salespersons
    ‘Wish Station’
    Easy to locate within store location
    Elves were trained to move the consumers through the
    entire sales process
    Elves were compensated by the hour
    Aim to increase the average transaction value and
    overall sales volume
    Other Support Initiatives
    Re launched its website in partnership with Amazon
    Broader assortment in women’s apparel
    Specialized merchandise shops for men’s wear
    Reducing the out of stock situations
    Expanded its electronic assortment for the young
    generation
    Value Strategy - Offering everyday value for a major
    value of its product offerings
    Other initiatives
    No self check outs
    Tallying prices
    Packing merchandise
    Transferred to customers

    No Price detectors were available on the shelves


    Elves would carry detectors and could be called from
    anywhere in the shop using an on call pager with each
    Elf.
    Canadian Retailing Industry
    Competition from the biggies and the traditional full line
    stores

    More than 220,400 retail stores across Canada providing 11%


    of total job opportunities in 2004

     Valued at $ 366 bn in 2006

    Sales from general Merchandise stores were about $ 46.5 bn

    Desperate Need for differentiation


    Metrics
    Sales /sq ft
    Sales /hour/associate
    Traffic count
    Number of transactions
    Average transaction size
    Challenges
    How to stay relevant even after the novelty wore out ?

    Sales varied by store size, merchandise & location


     Core Category
     Satellite
     Small Category
    Increasing Customer Buy-in
    Loss of valuable resources from stores, as Elves would
    be generalists
    Recommendations
     An optional permanent personal buying assistant for the loyal customers
    which will help in personalizing the whole experience
    During Christmas, Specialized customer assistance should be retained
    apart from Generalist customer assistance
    An Electronic feedback system should be in place so as to record buyer
    preferences more accurately
    A loyalty program should be in place for the loyal customers
    During Christmas, they should run programs that induce repeat buying
    with validity for 3-9 months
    They have to bring in new initiatives to create buzz and be in the news,
    for example:
     Various social initiatives
     Recruit jobless women and train them to become a permanent personal
    buying assistant, thus empowering them in the process
    Thank You

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