Sears' Mobile Commerce App to Enter Year-Round Service

For many people out there, the Sears Wish Book has been something of an annual tradition. Just looking at that massive catalog brings back fond memories of leafing through its pages, dreaming of a glittering Christmas morning full of all the latest and greatest toys and fond letters addressed to a certain charitable gent at the North Pole with their contents. Naturally, the Wish Book has undergone some changes in recent years, and now it’s about to undergo one more. With the newest release of the Wish Book--now celebrating its 60th anniversary--the iPad version of the Wish Book will now be available year-round.

Previously, the Wish Book from Sears had been a way to drive sales in the holiday months. But it didn't take long--this is only the second year that the Wish Book has been available as an iPad app, after all--to see that the Wish Book had potential to drive sales the rest of the year as well. Further considering that the Wish Book app saw over 50,000 downloads in 2011, the extension of the service to year-round rather than just temporary made plenty of sense as well.


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To that end, Sears has brought in a series of extra features to help users more readily navigate the merchandise-filled pages of the Wish Book app, including pinch zoom tools to more closely inspect potential items, bookmarking for easier list-making or closer examination later, one-touch product information screens, and the ability to share wish lists with family and friends via social networking services like Facebook (News - Alert), or just through standard e-mail.

While some may balk at the idea of a cherished holiday tradition being used to pump up Sears' sales figures, Sears needs to be around in order to yield that cherished holiday tradition. Keeping profits up and shareholders happy--especially by the simple method of keeping customers satisfied--goes a long way toward making Sears' continued existence possible. Sears making shopping easier by offering up a robust mobile commerce platform from which to operate is a great way to do just that, though it's easy to see where some customers would be dissatisfied at the progression of the Wish Book overall. Considering that within the last week Sears began testing a free online shipping program, that should serve to put some extra life in Sears' offerings and allow it to compete against major online shopping names like Amazon.

Still though, for those planning to do a lot of holiday shopping--no matter what holiday it actually is--the Wish Book will likely be a great help in the months to come now that it's a year-round prospect instead of merely a holiday tradition.