HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill., Dec. 28, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Sears Holdings announced today that millions of customers chose sears.com and kmart.com to make their holiday shopping easy, fast and affordable this year. Customers preferred to shop sears.com and kmart.com for the depth of product selection, great prices and their many online features that make shopping easier.

"We are grateful to our customers who made this holiday season a success for sears.com, kmart.com and our whole family of websites," said Imran Jooma, president of eCommerce at Sears Holdings. "Every online shopping feature we offer, from buy online, pick up in-store and mobile shopping to Personal Shopper, is available because we are dedicated to making customers' online shopping experience simple and convenient for their busy lives – especially during the holidays."

Customers also took advantage of the hot deals sears.com and kmart.com offered on more than 16 million product choices ranging from toys and apparel to tools, electronics and appliances. While power shopping for incredible holiday gifts, shoppers utilized the sears.com and kmart.com online shopping tools and convenient services in greater numbers than ever before. Here are just some of the many ways customers enjoyed speed and convenience while shopping on sears.com and kmart.com:

• The most unique request by a customer using a Sears Personal Shopper still stands as a blue octopus wearing a Santa hat holding a present – and sears.com found it!
• Customers across the country helped reduce the impact on the environment by using Sears and Kmart e-Receipts.
• More customers than ever preferred to skip the wait and get their orders instantly by using buy online, pick up in-store on sears.com and kmart.com powered by mygofer. Forty-eight to 72 hours of waiting were saved for every one customer who used buy online, pick up in-store instead of getting orders shipped.*
• If combined into a book, the amount of social media conversations generated from the Sears Wish Book would equal thousands of pages in several lengthy novels.
• The first item unlocked in the Wish Together tab on the Sears Facebook page sold out in nine minutes and 14 seconds – less than the time it took the world's first Ferris Wheel to make a complete revolution.
• The most popular QR codes scanned from customers' smart phones led to product descriptions, reviews and videos for the Samsung 3D LED TV, Nintendo Wii Bundle and Microsoft Kinect.

"It's thrilling to see all the positive feedback from customers utilizing many of our online shopping features this holiday season," said Jooma. Saving our customers time and money, while offering smart shopping solutions are our top priorities."

Customers also had one of the best site experiences in the industry. The Gomez Retail User Experience Index ranked Sears Holdings a top retailer for site performance.** The online shopping experience was enhanced by superior search and browse navigation helping customers complete their transactions more quickly and conveniently than ever before.

In addition, customers enjoyed using many of the expanded experiences and applications available on sears.com and kmart.com this holiday season including:

• Buy Online, Pick up in-Store: This holiday season, customers saved time and money by avoiding the wait using buy online, pick up in-store. With curbside and third-party pick up, it was instant gratification – guaranteed pick up in five minutes. And for the first time this year, buy online, pick up in-store became available on kmart.com powered by the innovative mygofer service.
• Persantify Yourself: So what kind of Santa were you? This year, customers were able to "persantify themselves" at sears.com/santa and get shopping tips and guidance from the Sears Santa personalities: savvysanta, santamazing, powersanta, santabulous and procrastisanta.
• Wish Book Your Way: Who doesn't have fond memories of the Sears iconic Wish Book catalog? For the 2010 holiday season, Wish Book was reinvented into multiple digital innovations to make shopping Wish Book easy anywhere, anytime. From a Facebook and iPad app to the online catalog and more – customers had the chance to make new memories with the famous holiday catalog.
• Sears.com Goes International: Customers around the world have been taking advantage of the sears.com international shipping options. New this year and just in time for the holiday season – sears.com introduced shipping to and from Canada; just one of the 92 countries sears.com ships to across the globe.
• Expanded Ways To Get It Today: In addition to buy online, pick up in-store, customers in select markets can consolidate items from multiple stores to a single pickup order at a Sears or Kmart store or have their entire order delivered directly to their home or office today – courtesy of the innovative mygofer service.

"We look forward to continuing to develop simple shopping features and expand upon the millions of products we already offer in order to continue providing customers a great shopping experience and a vast, affordable product selection," said Jooma.

About Sears Holdings Corporation

Sears Holdings Corporation is the nation's fourth largest broadline retailer with approximately 3,900 full-line and specialty retail stores in the United States and Canada. Sears Holdings is the leading home appliance retailer as well as a leader in tools, lawn and garden, home electronics and automotive repair and maintenance. Key proprietary brands include Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard, and a broad apparel offering, including such well-known labels as Lands' End, Jaclyn Smith and Joe Boxer, as well as the Apostrophe and Covington brands. It also has the Country Living collection, which is offered exclusively by Sears and Kmart. We are the nation's largest provider of home services, with more than 12 million service calls made annually. Sears Holdings Corporation operates through its subsidiaries, including Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Kmart Corporation.

For more information, visit Sears Holdings' Web site at http://www.searsholdings.com.

• *Number based on average standard shipping time for mailable items from Sears designated distribution centers to households across the country. Time reflects when order begins transit and is dropped off at destination and calculated based on business days (as long as inventory is available). CDFC Standard Shipping TNT 2009.
• **The Gomez Retail UX (User Experience) Index offers a view into the aggregate performance of major Web and mobile applications that also predicts online shoppers' satisfaction or frustration during a critical shopping period – Black Friday through Cyber Monday.

SOURCE Sears Holdings Corporation