Sears.com announced the launch of Sears2go, a mobile commerce Web site powered by Usablenet. In a departure from many store Web sites, the Sears2Go mobile portal enables customers to find and buy select Sears.com merchandise from their mobile phone, "pairing mobile commerce with Sears' best in class in-store pickup."

Here's how it works: customers can choose products from a wide variety of categories, including apparel, electronics and computers, fitness and sports, jewelry, tools, toys and games, with either home delivery or in store pickup. Then, after purchasing an item on Sears2go, shoppers picking up their order in store will receive a text message alert when their merchandise is ready for pick-up.

Many retails are looking for exactly the right kind of functionality balance on cell phones—do customers want to buy items outright on the go? Do they just want to look and get product information or store hours? What about order status? The in-store pick-up angle is new to us; it will be interesting to see how well it does in the marketplace.