Sears Developer Network

One of my favorite things about working on the API Product Management team is seeing all of the amazing products and apps that the Sears Developer Network builds using the Sears Open API Platform.

Since launching the Sears Developer Network and the Sears Open API Platform in 2010, we haven't particularly done a good job in showcasing your work.  That's why, here at the start of 2012, we've made the commitment to do our best to highlight the achievements and contributions of our developer community.  

We're excited to start the year off with a BANG with one of our very own!

Just a few weeks ago, our very own Sears Mobile team earned not one, but TWO of the highest accolades and most prestigious awards in mobile commerce: 2011 Mobile Retailer of the Year and 2011 Mobile Commerce Website of the Year.

Check out the wonderful words Mobile Commerce Daily had to say about these two fantastic honors:

Mobile Commerce Daily is convinced that Sears serves as a role model for retailers for its outstanding use of mobile. The Mobile Retailer of the Year is the most prestigious honor for smart, strategic and creative use of the mobile medium. Target won the honor in 2010 and eBay won in 2009. 

“Sears gets that mobile commerce is not about the channel, but about the customer,” said Mickey Alam Khan, editor in chief of Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily, New York. “Today’s store is not just doors, shelves and escalators, but keypads, local search and appealing product display on screens, and Sears’ mobile strategy is completely reflective of how control of shopping has shifted to the customer. 

“Through its 360-degree use of mobile to support not only that medium but stores and online, Sears has shown a level of maturity rare among the nation’s leading retailers,” he said. “Sears’ mobile presence is making it easier to shop with the brand, and thus prepare the retailer for 21st century retailing and marketing.” 

Sears saw double-digit growth in mobile sales during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and had the highest-ranking mobile commerce sites for Black Friday, according to the Compuware Gomez Performance Satisfaction Index.

Why are we so excited?

Sears Mobile consumes our Product Search API, Product Details API, Store Locator API and several of our 150 internal-facing APIs that are exposed for consumption by Sears and select partners.  

Why should you be excited?

We want you to use our data and Open API Platform to build your own mobile apps or any other experience your heart desires.  Our public facing APIs are available for anyone in the SDN community to use, but if you are an active Sears Open API Platform user and want to take it to the next level with some of our internal-facing APIs, let's talk: @SearsAPI or philip.nowak@searshc.com.

If you know about apps, then you know about mobile. Mobile apps are everywhere from your iPhone, Droid, and now the iPad. Mobile apps have changed the way consumers can access information while on the go and it's starting to change the way we buy.

Using traditional web browser, consumers can easily price compare by opening several Web browsers or simply visiting price comparing sites that would do it for you (there's now even Kayak, which allows you to acess all flight and travel information to find the best prices at your fingertips). With mobile apps, e-commerce has taken an interesting turn as people can now price compare while they shop. You can be in a store looking at lawnmowers and pull up an app on your Droid and voila! You've found a cheaper price right there - and you can either see if teh store will match the price, or you can order from your phone and your lawnmower will be on its way.

According to Coda Research, mobile e-commerce revenues in the states will reach $23.8 billion in 2015, which is 8.5% of U.S. total e-commerce revenues. Clearly, this is changing the way people do business and shop. At Sears, we see this as an opportunity to work with developers to use our APIs in innovative ways so we can be wherever our customers are and help them more easily shop in a smart, informed way.

If you've been reading here, you'll know we've been releasing new Sears APIs for developers over the past few weeks. I'm really interested in how developers are innovating business with retail APIs like ours and the changing face of e-commerce.

Brendan Gibbons from Practical eCommerce recently wrote about visual search as it pertains to mobile commerce.  More and more, we've seen retail's move to mobile as consumers are increasingly interacting with products in new ways via new channels. At Sears, we've mobile shopping applications like Sears2go and Kmart2go that allow customers to search, browse and buy products from their phones.

Visual search could really be a valuable tool that I can see taking off in the mobile space - as Gibbons notes, "This technology is useful for mobile users who are on the go and seeking certain qualities in a product without knowing or caring about the brand name. For example, someone with an iPhone could see a shirt in a store and want to search for shirts with similar aesthetics. “  Google is already doing some visual search with Google Goggle which allows Android mobile phone users to search using images. 

Let us know your thoughts and what applications you are planning to build using the APIs! We're excited to build out the blog content and engage with Sears API developers.

Our Sears mobile apps are using the APIs. Browse, purchase, rate as you go directly from your iPhone app. We have extensive developments going on in the mobile area where lots of the online functionalities can be found on the mobile.

For you it is the same, take the API and create your own mobile API carring the Sears or the Kmart products. Reports show that Mobile-app store users to quadruple in 2013.