Photograph by renaissancechambara
Argos: No laughing matter
The brilliant comedian Sean Lock tells joke that goes something like this:
‘Imagine proposing Argos on Dragons Den. The founder walks up to the dragons and says “I have a shop which sells absolutely everything. But no-one can see any of it until after they’ve paid”’.
I for one laughed because Argos, with its little biros, 1000 page laminated catalogues, queueing system and product chutes has always seemed a bit absurd to me. But I’m not alone in noticing that over the last couple of years Argos has started to make a huge amount of sense, and that maybe (just maybe) it was all just terribly ahead of its time.
To begin with, some basics.
Ditch the catalogue and what are you really left with? A shopping brand with 281,000 fans on Facebook that sells tens of thousands of regular consumer products priced between £5 – £500. Kind of like… Amazon. Now think back to the last time you ordered from Amazon mid-December and it hadn’t arrived by February, or had to return something bought online. Isn’t it a whole lot faster to just plonk a faulty toaster back into its box, walk in-store and say ‘it doesn’t work’ than depend on the Post Office?
Argos will never be able to replicate some of Amazon’s genius like ‘People who bought this also bought’ or Kindle, but having stores in most town centres opens up some opportunities in the near future that even Amazon can’t match.
Let’s say you’re out and about with a shopping list of Christmas presents on your phone. It’s probable that in the near future you will be able to find the location of every item with a single click, and display the most efficient route around town to buy them all. Taking time, money and distance into consideration, the chances are that Argos will feature prominently.
Walking towards Argos you suddenly realise that (unlike most other stores), you can place your order via mobile and have staff conveniently bundle your items into one cardboard carry box (a bit like a box you’d carry a new pet in). Entering the store you simply swipe your NFC enabled smartphone over a reader, get a digital receipt and pick up your goods. What would have been a 2 hour trek around town – or 2 days waiting for the post – just happened in 10 minutes with minimum friction.
None of this is lost on Argos. The laminated catalogues have long since been replaced by touch-screens and the mobile experience is already better than most, scoring highly in tests across different mobile devices.
You can also order track, follow them on Twitter and pay through PayPal – which makes a tremendous amount of sense. When you combine this investment in a decent digital ecosystem with a new series of TV spots created by CHI & Partners it all begins to look incredibly advanced and innovative.
So despite Argos being the butt of comedians jokes – including Sean Lock commenting it’s where ‘Big Brother go for contestants’ – perhaps we will see this business having the last laugh. Imagine Argos becoming that rarest of things; a significant high street + digital success story. I’m sorry I ever chuckled along.