What you need to know: Sears stock is suddenly soaring

Sears figured if you can’t beat ’em join ’em. It will start selling Kenmore appliances on Amazon, sending its stock up nearly 20% at the open.

What you need to know
Selling Kenmore on Amazon is good news for Sears because it lets consumers easily shop at the store without having to actually go there, or even leave the house.

It gets better, though. Sears will also start selling Kenmore appliances that can interact with Alexa, Amazon’s digital assistant.

What does this mean for me?
With the Alexa integration, Sears’ air conditioners and other devices will respond to voice commands. For instance, you could lower the temperature on your air conditioner by simply saying, “Alexa, make my living room cooler.”

In an era when the “Internet of Things” is increasingly popular and consumers are demanding the latest and greatest in technological trickery, scoring an Amazon partnership is huge for a company like Sears, which epitomized the catalog and department store era but has struggled in the 21st century.