US retail giant Sears has adopted the OpenID platform to more closely connect the social networking sites it runs for its Sears and Kmart chains with sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

This will help Sears overcome the issue of whether retailers should go to customers, or customers to retailers, when it comes to social networking – as the platform will help to link together multiple sites. Sears wants to let social media users access its sites without having to set up a new account and OpenID gives social media users a single username and password log on they can use across sites.

Customers in the Sears and Kmart communities will also be able to use the log on they already have to write product reviews and can share information on products and services. Future updates planned with the platform will allow users in the MySears and MyKmart communities to easily share their posts and product reviews with friends via Facebook.