Site-to-Store at the Westshore Sears

I love the Site to Store concept. Online prices, in store pickup, no shipping costs. When Walmart did it, it was cool. Place your order, wait 10-14 days, get an email, pick it up. Sears in Tampa brought it to a whole new level.

Placed an order for my mom’s belated Christmas Present today. Placed the order at 9:18 this morning, thinking I could pick it up in a couple of weeks. At 10:23, I get a note saying, “Your order is ready to pick up.” That fast? Really? Wow.

I called Sears, thinking there’s now way this could be. Apparently, they keep some inventory on special hold in their site to store, not for retail floor sales. They do this for about a hundred items that are popular, making it a very quick turnaround. He says that even for non-inventory items, delivery to the store is usually 1-2 days at most.

So, I’m impressed. I go to get my drill, and what I find when I get there is even more impressive. Special parking for pickup orders. No walking through the store. No lines. No bullshit. You just pull your car up to the door and that’s that.

This is the store I’m talking about, if any of you want to see this process in action:
Sears & Westshore Plaza
347 Westshore Plaza
Tampa, FL 33609
(813) 288-6000

I walk inside and I’m greeted by a computer. I’m expecting the worst. “Please scan your printed receipt from the email.” OK, easy enough. Hold it there, it scans. “Mr. Baldwin, thank you for your order. Please slide your credit card to login.” OK, seems easy enough. Sure enough, it was easy. “Mr. Baldwin, please wait. Our employee will be there in a moment. Please look at the screen to check progress of your order.”

I look up and associate CHARLES had already picked the order and was walking with it. Total transaction time from the time I put my credit card in until the box was in my hand was only 19 seconds. NINETEEN SECONDS.

I’m really impressed. I never gave Sears a lot of credit because I always found their stores to be crowded, overpriced and generally distracting. In the last couple of years though, that image has really turned around.

I’m so blown away by both the good deal I got and the great customer experience that I’m going to order one of these drills for myself next week.

Uncategorized site-to-store