Sears' Rolex and Chanel Offering: $33,000 Watch Now on Sale
In search of a new Rolex watch or the perfect Chanel bag? Look no further than Sears Marketplace. Company executives have announced that they will now sell high-end brands on their e-commerce site, despite criticism from others about the unlikely pairing.
Rolex, Chanel, and Zac Posen are all brands that customers will be able to shop for on Sears newly expanded e-commerce site. The online store, attempting to compete with others like Amazon and eBay, has introduced new products to its expanding line.
"We've grown Sears Marketplace to include more than 85 million items in just more than three years, so while it does include designer items, it also includes literally millions of other items across nearly every imaginable product category at a wide variety of price ranges. We're focused on serving, delighting and engaging our members while they shop their way," said Imran Jooma, executive vice president and president, marketing, online and financial services, Sears Holdings in a statement to FOX Business.
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The move to high-end items is an unexpected one for the company who is better known for offering customers good bargains.
"It just seems totally nuts to me," luxury marketing expert Pam Danziger told Fox. "Sears, K-Mart and luxury don't go together."
Danziger believes that Sears is spending too much time online and not focusing enough effort in store.
"Affluent [consumers] only make up about 20% of American households, but are 40% of consumer spending. But Sears is wasting time on this. They should be doing a better job of attracting more affluent customers back into their store, with good merchandise and good service," she said. "Affluent shoppers buy from all classes of stores-from dollar stores up to Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman."
Others have agreed, acknowledging that a bulk of the companies business is still coming from in store sales.
"Regardless of how successful they are in growing this business, the bulk of their business is from stores," Matt McGinley, managing director of investor research firm International Strategy & Investment Group, told The Wall Street Journal.
But Sears may still have hope. Shares of Sears were up 12 cents to $44.50 on Monday.
