Sears to sell Kenmore appliances on Amazon

[July 20, 2017]  (Reuters) - Sears Holdings Corp said its Kenmore brand of home appliances would now be available on Amazon.com, sending the struggling retailer's shares up 7 percent in premarket trading on Thursday.

The retailer also said it had integrated "smart" appliances from the Kenmore brand, such as connected room air conditioners, with Alexa, Amazon's digital assistant that responds to voice commands.

The agreement with Amazon marks the broadest distribution of Kenmore's products outside Sears stores and related online platforms, the retailer said.

The deal could give a fillip to sales at Sears, which was once the largest U.S. retailer but has suffered falling sales and profits in recent years amid intensifying competition from Wal-Mart Stores Inc <WMT.N> and Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O>.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

(Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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