With the advent of E-commerce
boom in India modern Retailers in India like Bigbazaar are increasingly finding
it difficult to make a niche for themselves into the booming online retail market.
Even though most of these retailers have web presence they still have not been
able to use the online presence to their advantage. The primary reason being lack
of integration between their online and offline channels. Argos in UK faced a
similar challenge in 1990’s. However with their innovative thinking and use of
technology to integrate their different channels it was able to win over
customer in United Kingdom.
Argos was founded in 1973 and is
UK’s largest online general merchandizer. It owns and operates 580 stores
across UK and republic of Ireland and employees around 23,000 people. Even
though the likes of Amazon and Wal-Mart have been in present in UK since late
90’s Argos has been successful in creating a niche for itself and enjoys a
loyal customer base over its competitors.
One of the
hallmarks of Argos success has been its multi-channel approach for sales
wherein customers are offered different avenues for shopping. As such when the E-commerce
companies started coming into UK Argos integrated multiple channels to its
already existing brick and mortar model. Argos maintained a broad network of stores
and distributes its catalogue to more than two-thirds of all UK households.
There is an Argos store within 10 miles for 98% of the UK population.
This ensures speedy delivery which is by far the most important reasons
for customers to shop at Argos. Also the fact that it distributes its catalogue
to buyers enables buyers to look through a catalogue at their leisure and
choose from an extremely broad product range. The catalogue distributions enables Argos keep
its product display costs low and thereby provide value to the customers. Even the
online website is closely integrated to in-store channel and customers have the
liberty to reserve goods online and collect them directly from the store. Likewise Telephone channel is another important
medium through which Argos receives a significant proportion of its sales.
Through telephone customers are able to check the availability of stock in
their nearest store and make reservations and also order home delivery.
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