Monro Inc. has announced a collaboration with Amazon to provide tire installation services at its retail tire and automotive service centers. Installation will be available to customers who purchase tires from Amazon and select the “ship to store” option — essentially the same functionality used by a program already in place between Amazon and Sears.

The Monro/Amazon agreement is non-exclusive both ways.

The installation service will debut with 52 Mr. Tire Auto Service Centers in the Baltimore area. (Mr. Tire is a Monro brand). Following this initial launch, the Monro/Amazon initiative will expand to all of Monro’s more than 1,170 retail locations across 27 states over the course of the year.

Monro president and CEO Brett Ponton said that the Amazon tire-installation deal aligns “perfectly with our ‘Monro Forward’ initiative to develop a robust omni- channel presence.”

Ponton also said that it builds upon the success of multiple preferred tire-installer agreements already in place. “While still representing a small fraction of our business, our agreements with online retailers are a key component of our omni-channel strategy,” Ponton told analysts on a July 26 conference call.

“These agreements are a notable traffic driver, as 50 percent of these customers are new to Monro,” he explained. “Once these customers are in-store, we can inspect their vehicle and recommend add-on services, driving increased conversion and higher tickets. Importantly, we’re also able to add them to our CRM database and begin to build long-term, one-to-one relationships.”