Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Its fast-growing internet business is now contributing almost a quarter of sales at Argos, the company revealed as it announced its first-quarter results.
Internet sales continued to grow by around one-third in the first 13 weeks of the financial year, representing 22% of all Argos sales. The increase was driven by the retailer’s Check & Reserve system, which provides online orders for immediate store collection: sales here grew by over 50%.
Total Argos sales grew by 4% to £929m but that entire growth came from net new space. Like-for-like sales were flat.
At the end of the quarter, which saw three openings and one closure, Argos had 709 stores, up from 683 a year earlier.
Argos’ sister company within Home Retail Group, Homebase, put in a disappointing performance by comparison, with sales down by 5% to £440m. Like-for-likes dropped 12%.
