Sears Partners With Amazon on Tire Purchases, Installations

Sears Auto Centers, a division of Sears Holdings Corp., announced yesterday that it's working with Amazon.com to provide tire installation and balancing for customers who purchase any brand of tires on Amazon, including its own DieHard brand. The rollout will begin in the coming weeks for eight metropolitan areas: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The service will eventually go live at Sears’ more than 400 Auto Centers across the U.S. With this collaboration, Sears said Sears Auto will become the first nationwide auto service center to offer Amazon customers its Ship-to-Store tire solution integrated into Amazon's checkout process. Amazon customers select their tires, the Sears Auto location and their preferred date and time for the tire installation, and then Sears Auto Center contacts them to confirm their appointment. 

Total Retail's Take: This collaboration stems from a growing relationship between Sears and Amazon. Sears began selling Alexa-enabled Kenmore appliances on Amazon in July 2017. Then, in December, Sears’ brand DieHard products were added to Amazon. The announcement signaled some rare good news for Sears. Shares of the department store chain surged 24 percent on the news.