Sears First To Share Passwords With Facebook, MySpace, Others
Written by Fred J. AunJuly 8th, 2009
Sears is the first major retailer to use the OpenID universal log-in platform, an initial step toward allowing customers to enter its two online "communities" using their Facebook, Myspace or other social network IDs. The move to embrace social networks is part of a coordinated effort by Sears to shed its 116-year-old heritage and become more relevant and attractive to younger consumers. Although Sears is still the fifth-largest in the country, a disproportionate chunk of that $47 billion annual revenue is coming from older consumers who grew up with the brand. To secure its future, it needs to appear more in tune with those younger shoppers.
It's not a coincidence that, for the last couple of years, Sears has been at the forefront of several major technologies, almost all of which resonant overwhelmingly with Gen Y, including social networking, mobile and companion shopping. These include being the first retailer to support 2-D barcodes, a new approach called a GiveTogether gifting program and a GPS-based mobile commerce application.
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Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
I have strong reservations about the 'individual' certification and posting of that information for merchants. Can you imagine the potential employee poaching that might occur? The implications when competitors can look up how many are certified with each of their competitors? 
-Christine
