WebProNews

Sears has launched an integrated marketing campaign around the return of the holiday Wish Book.

Richard Gerstein, SVP and chief marketing officer at Sears, says the Internet has a bigger role than in past years. The retailer has partnered with Yahoo to launch a holiday themed social networking site that includes the use of widgets, text messaging, alerts to customers and promotions.

The social networking site "Where Wishes Begin" will allow users to vote on gift ideas, use Yahoo Answers to solve gift- giving issues, share video and photos of gift-giving reactions via Yahoo's photo sharing community Flickr.

"Sears will have a much larger online presence this holiday," said Gerstein. "The online space continues to offer new and exciting ways to interact in a meaningful way with our customers, such as the holiday experience we have created with Yahoo.com."

Sears is also allowing shoppers to make purchases online and pick them up at stores. The program will expand after Thanksgiving to provide curbside service for select products being delivered to a customer's vehicle within five minutes of arriving at the store.