With
just a few days to go until the biggest shopping event of the year,
Argos is gearing up its online channels, stores, distribution network
and people to be ready to fulfil demand for the thousands of deals it is
offering to UK shoppers for Black Friday 2015.The
retailer expects this year’s Black Friday to be another mobile-led
event with shoppers on smart phones and tablets leading the bargain
frenzy, after a staggering two thirds of Argos shoppers snapped up Black
Friday deals using smart phones and tablets in 2014.
This
year, overall Argos will release thousands of deals on its websites and
apps to celebrate the Black Friday shopping season. Its 12 day Black
Friday event launched on Friday 20 November, which included ‘3 for 2’ on
toys and amazing deals on videos games, 4K TVs and cameras, with some
reductions at less than half price. More deals are being added in the
run up to the day itself. A select number of highly competitive ‘When
It’s Gone, It’s Gone’ (WIGIG) deals will launch in the early hours of
Black Friday, followed by more bargains throughout December.
Chief
Operating Officer at Argos, David Robinson, said: “Customers can get
great deals on everything they want for loved ones or themselves this
Christmas. We can also help them get their hands on items fast, in the
way they want. We know an increasing number of customers want to be
able to snap up deals whenever and wherever they are, using smart phones
and tablets whether it’s in front of the telly or on their way to work,
so we’ve made this as easy as possible for them. Our Fast Track
collection and delivery and Check & Reserve services enable them to
secure the product they want online and avoid the Black Friday rush if
they choose.”
On
the high street, Argos has recruited an additional 9,000 temporary
workers to help serve customers in its 800+ stores over Christmas. On
Black Friday itself, they will be joined by hundreds of head office
workers helping out on the shop floor.
To
get the deals and top products out to stores and customers’ homes,
Argos’ 11 enormous distribution centres covering a total of 5.4 million
square feet of floor space will have 6,100 warehouse workers and 1,000
delivery drivers, supported by 3,000 Fast Track drivers based at local
stores, dispatching millions of gifts over Black Friday and beyond.
High-demand products being ferried across the UK this Christmas using a
fleet of 1,800 lorries and Fast Track vans include wearable tech such as
FitBit, Nutribullets, 4K TVs, Xboxes and games such as Call of Duty,
and hot toys for 2015 such as Star Wars, Lego and Thunderbirds Tracy
Island.
Customers
UK-wide shopping for deals on Black Friday will be able to take
advantage of Argos’ innovative new same-day home delivery service, Fast
Track. Same-day delivery slots will be offered to customers on a
first-come, first-served basis, with subsequent days’ slots offered once
Black Friday’s delivery schedules are full.
In
2014, Argos saw more than 13.5m visits to its web channels on Black
Friday, up 197 per cent from the previous year. This year it expects to
see a repeat of last year’s unusual shopping patterns as consumers
stayed up to shop into the wee small hours to snap up the best deals as
soon as they launched. There were more than half a million of visits to
the Argos website between 1-2am in 2014.
In
2014, Argos’ peak hour for orders was 2–3pm with an average of eight
orders a second. On average per minute Argos sold 14 VAX steam mops,
nine Scooby Doo Hide and Seeks and seven iPad Mini Wi-Fi 16GBs.
Argos main website, its mobile site
and apps received around 900 million visits in the last financial year
making Argos the UK’s largest high street retailer online. Around 45
per cent of all Argos sales are online, with sales through mobile
devices now representing 25 per cent of total sales.
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