We are currently working in several tracks to improve the user experience on the site, from new users flows to commerce features, to information management and improved relevancy.

Your suggestions are on our roadmap and if you keep following us on this blog or on the site you will see these changes soon.

Are there any plans to incorporate Sears item numbers into the product search?

For instance, if I want to review the Kenmore 92804 electric range, I can’t just type 92804 into the search box, nor can I type 02292804000, which is what takes sears.com directly to the item. Instead, I’d have to open a separate tab, go to sears.com, search on sears.com for 02292804000, go to the product page, copy the URL from the address bar, go back to the Sears Social page, paste that URL into the search box, THEN search for it. Imagine if you couldn’t dial a phone number with a particular phone, but you COULD get a phone book, look up the person’s phone number, convert the number to braille, rub the phone number against the receiver, and do the hokey pokey. How willing would you be to buy that phone?

I will give credit where due: you did add instructions for adding products for review on the “Oops!” page for non-parsed search terms. Of course, the flip-side is that adding products is disabled. *sigh* I work for Sears. I was completely scared of coming back to Sears Social after the first few forays that proved utterly pointless and completely frustrating.

The usability on Sears Social is improving in dribs and drabs, but usability doesn’t matter a lick if the features don’t actually do anything. I don’t want to sound like a downer, but holy moly. If I didn’t work for Sears, and I had the experiences using this site that I had when it was first leaked within the company and when it was first announced publicly, I would never EVER return to it. Especially considering how the core sears.com site is still struggling to maintain relevance with frequently inaccurate information, poorly thought out search filters, incorrect search results (search for stainless steel ranges, get white/black/bisque ones in there, too), clutter, reviews that don’t pertain to all the color variants of a given appliance, poor formatting of various information (ever tried to browse Dacor’s merchandise on sears.com?)…this is by no means an exhaustive list. Why don’t we ever address the core issues of the site before slapping new graphics and sloppy javascript everywhere? It’s like adding layer after layer of vinyl siding over a house that is crawling with termites.

We’ve got to get our act together and make it usable FIRST, or, since that ship has already sailed, we need to make it usable FAST. Google got away with it because their site is abundantly simple. Type words in a box. Press a button. Get information. Sears Social isn’t that simple. We can’t put our hobbled foot forward and expect to get anywhere. We need to fix sears.com so it actually works and is actually useful. Then, and ONLY then, should we address all the recreational what-have-you on Sears Social.

We can do better!