Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Retailer Argos is predicting a UK mobile shopping frenzy with more visits than ever to its website and apps on ‘Cyber Monday’ (December 1) from customers using smartphones and tablets.
With the Christmas shopping season kick-started on ‘Black Friday’ (November 28), Argos expects online traffic to reach a peak on ‘Cyber Monday’. It predicts more than five million visits to its websites and apps on the day, more than half of which will come from customers using mobile devices, at a rate of around 3,000 visits per minute.
On Cyber Monday last year (December 2 2013) Argos saw over 3.6 million visits across argos.co.uk, its mobile site and apps. Online visits peaked between 11am-12pm, and again in the evening between 9pm-10pm.
This year an increasing number of shoppers are turning to Argos’ mobile apps to Check & Reserve orders where items can be reserved for immediate collection from store. In line with this, the number of Argos app downloads – currently at around 10 million- is expected to increase on Cyber Monday.
Argos chief operating officer David Robinson said: “Customer shopping habits are changing fast and more and more want the convenience of shopping on-the-go or in front of the TV in the evening. Making mobile shopping easy has been our priority this year, and we’ve just launched our first ever Argos Collect Store at Cannon Street Underground Station for busy commuters to collect their orders on-the-go. We’ve also brought gift inspiration into the 21st century with some great new Christmas apps for smartphones and tablets.”
Argos’ 11 distribution centres covering a total of 5.4 million sq ft, will have 6,100 warehouse workers and 1,000 delivery drivers helping to dispatch millions of gifts over Cyber Monday and beyond, out to stores and homes on a fleet of 975 lorries and vans.
Argos offers around 43,000 products through www.argos.co.uk, its growing mobile channels, network of 734 stores across the UK and Republic of Ireland. and over the telephone. In the financial year to February 2014, Argos sales were £4.1 billion and it employed some 29,000 people across the business. Argos is part of Home Retail Group.
