I remember that what became NewEgg opened a brick and mortar store for (mostly) software and such (some hardware) in the suburb of Seattle that I lived in at the time, then a year or two later shifted entirely to online. They pivoted //hard// and made it work.

I don't think Sears could have done quite that, but keeping the catalog and 'order to the store for free (long time) shipping' / 'delivery to home with paid shipping' would have been a much better move and SHOULD have been within their grasp to understand and execute on. All the more so if a customer could look at clothing styles and options and order slight variants or harder to get sizes from the catalog.