Under the direction of Hugo Malan, a former managing director for Barclay’s Capital who has served as the chain’s president of sports and fitness for nearly two years, Sears is taking steps to more strongly connect to consumers via health and fitness. Two significant components of the effort are the build-out of 38 store-within-a-store fitness specialty formats in existing Sears’ stores and the development of an online fitness website, FitStudio.

The latter includes a myriad of free content, including forums, blogs and suggested workouts, and a paid e-trainer service where consumers can purchase personalized subscriptions from a week to up to ... Log in to view full article.