Shopping is EASY with Sear's Shop Your Way!

I remember when GameTeen and Chef were pre-schoolers and how Ed and I would do the shopping scramble to purchase gifts. One with the boys, the other trying to dash items off to the register after we saw that our kids liked them. Then, we'd try to get gifts into the house without the kids knowing we had them in the car-never an easy thing.

Then, the miraculous holiday season of 2000, when many retailers finally embraced 'the Interwebz', and I could shop online, while the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade occupied the kids in the next room. The best part was that neither of them knew the boxes dropped off by the UPS dude were their gifts.
,br /> Nowadays, the jig is up, the kids know Mom and Dad buy the gifts and they come directly to us for the things they'd like. I am the keeper of lists, not only for me, but for the boys and for Ed, too. I'm not a fan of being the keeper of the lists, not when I'm trying to create lesson plans and study for classes, too! Why can't someone else keep those 'likes' and 'wants' together for me? Maybe in a way that is fun?

I think Sears heard me, and the rest of the list keepers, because they came up with a solution for all of us: Shop Your Way.

I signed up last week and have been noodling around the Shop Your Way site ever since and I am impressed. It has Lands' End, my favorite brand for classic clothing that last for years, it has Sears, home of name brand appliances and electronics and those built to last Craftsmen tools, but Shop Your Way is not just a website for the Sears brand storefronts. That's just the beginning.

Here's where it is different: Shopping is a social experience, and Shop Your Way is social media for shopping. Once you create a profile, you can 'like' items you want to purchase, put them on your wish lists and have a quick reference to go back to when it's time to buy.

Like for me, we need a new sofa. I found a few favorites and put them on my wish list. Then, I noticed a friend had posted a 'Help Me Choose' in my feed, and I voted on the dining room table I liked the best. Pretty neat, in my opinion. When you like or wish list something, you have the option to make it public, just your friends, or private-which is a winner for moms like me who want to keep the gift plans a secret a little while longer. (Note to self: must get the kids to make their own accounts, so I can look at them!)

To be honest, Shop Your Way seems like a mash up of all the best qualities of those social media sites you probably use every day, only for shopping. I've added friends I know, so I can get an idea of what they're looking at and knowing some, definitely get inspired in my future purchases-there are some areas of home decorating I can definitely use some help!

It's easy to sign up and get started, in fact, it takes seconds if you decide to link it to your Facebook account. When you do, you'll see who among your friends are already on the Shop Your Way site, with the option to follow them.

I didn't even tell you my favorite part of Shop Your Way, the way they contact you about deals! If you look at an item, you see the regular price and if it's on sale, the sale price is on the site, too. BUT, you get messages about deals on the site, and on specific items you've liked or put on your wish list. No more having to go to the website to see if something is on sale-they contact YOU! How awesome is that?

Most of my Facebook friends can tell you that I am a nitpicker website usability. Several of my favorite retailers have horrible websites that are cumbersome, and as a result, I don't shop with them as much. I can definitely see Shop Your Way becoming my online shopping destination. The only quibble I have about Shop Your Way, and I mean the ONLY quibble, is that the site is slow to load. I suspect that will get easier the more I use it, but for now, I'm loading something and opening another window for a moment or two, then going back. It's a minor issue that Type A's have to put up with once in a while.

I hear you thinking right now, I do. You're skeptical of this new thing. You're asking "Suzanne, what's in it for me?" Well, there are deals that Shop Your Way only gives their members, you know, those private sales that you always wondered how you got the deal? Here's the deal: Go to Shop Your Way and set up an account. Find your friends and look around the site. Within minutes, you'll have some friends with you, you'll have some items in your personal catalog and the list keeping burden will be gone, THEN, you'll be in line to get one of these bad boys on Monday:

Yes, I told you how to get into a private sale. If you're not done with your Christmas Shopping, go sign up because it's free. Then, come Monday, you'll be sitting pretty with private sale pricing early enough that you can have the good stuff shipped to your house.

How this deal works-you will have early bird access to some hot deals on cool last-minute gifts THIS Monday (December 17th) from 1am to 11:59am CST. Yes, the early bird will catch some deals this week!

Consider this my (and Sears) gift to you!!

Disclaimer-This is a sponsored post with http://brandfluential.com, I am a Sears Blogger, but the thoughts and opinions expressed about Sears Shop Your Way are completely my own.