Sainsbury’s has now opened 400 Argos digital format stores meaning half of all Argos branches are within its supermarkets.
The 400th Argos store within a store is now up and running. The new Argos digital store, situated in Sainsbury’s Crystal Peaks, Sheffield, follows the opening of two similar stores in Belfast and Waltham Cross earlier this week. The latest opening means that more than half of all Argos stores are now within branches of Sainsbury’s, enabling shoppers to pick up a wide variety of general merchandise purchases at the same time as buying their groceries.
Sainsbury’s has revealed that 90% of Argos purchases now start online, with customers able to opt for fast track delivery or collection from a store. Within Argos digital format stores, customers can also use tablets in a digital Pay@Browse area to select goods and place orders.
“This is a fantastic milestone for us that shows how we’re continuing to invest in our estate to improve the availability of great value Argos products for customers,” Patrick Dunne, Sainsbury’s property director, told Internet Retailing. “It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come from the opening of our first Argos store inside a Sainsbury’s in 2015. We know our customers have enjoyed the added flexibility and convenience offered by these stores ever since.”
When Sainsbury’s bought Argos in 2016, there were 22 digital branches of Argos within its supermarkets. The retailer has said its longer-term strategy, as set out in November 2020, is to maintain around 100 standalone branches of Argos, with the rest located within branches of Sainsbury’s. That would mean the closure of 420 standalone Argos branches since November 2020.
Argos now sells more than 60,000 products through stores, online and mobile and says it is the UK’s third most visited website.
Sainsbury’s latest full year trading results revealed sales of toys, homeware and other non-food merchandise from Argos fell by 16% year-on-year. The group said that this was down to comparisons with a “strong performance” during lockdown the previous Christmas, as well as a company decision to offer fewer discounts. The retailer said that global supply chain issues had also affected the availability of certain products.
