Sears Makes Gift-Giving a Family Affair
Sears has built out its main Web site with the launch of GiveTogether, a free online gift platform that lets families, friends and other social groups collaborate on buying and giving a single gift without worrying about how to wrap or ship it.
The process begins when one person—either the organizer or the recipient—goes to the page through a banner on the Sears web site. That contact person can register, select any item or service offered by Sears and send out an e-mail inviting others to contribute to the gift.
Contributors can register and pay into the gift fund via credit card, eliminating the need for one donor to keep track of the group’s contributions. Contributors can check back to see the total amount of the contribution any time they wish.
When the cost of the gift has been collected, the first contact can choose to give the recipient a Sears eGift Card for the present either in person or via e-mail. And the gift recipient can also choose to redeem the card online or in-store for the actual gift.
The feature is rolling out in time for Mother’s Day, but Sears said that it will be functional all through the year and available for giving at occasions from Father’s Day and graduations to baby showers and back-to-school.
“Sears is redefining how people are giving gifts with GiveTogether,” said Richard Gerstein, senior marketing vice president for parent company Sears Holdings Corp., in a release. “No other retailer has such a unique combination of multichannel assets and capabilities, like GiveTogether, that makes gift giving so easy and fun.”
“We created GiveTogether because we strongly believe today’s American family remains optimistic and is looking to deliver that ultimate gift for their loved ones, near and far,” Sears divisional vice president of marketing, planning and program development Bill Kiss said in the release.
Sears Holdings Corp. said the GiveTogether platform will eventually include home fashions, apparel and other products from Kmart, another of its retail brands.
In March both Sears and Kmart updated their Web shopping functions so that users could browse the merchandise of both stores in a single operation and share product photos on Facebook.
