Argos has laid claim to being the first multichannel retailer in the UK to generate £1bn of m-commerce revenue in a year.

Argos has laid claim to being the first multichannel retailer in the UK to generate £1bn of m-commerce revenue in a year.

  • Argos is the first UK multichannel retailer to generate £1bn of m-commerce sales in a year
  • The figure includes sales starting on mobile, covering click-and-collect and home delivery.
  • Sales involving a mobile device grew 38% in the year to February 28

Home Retail chief digital officer Bertrand Bodson revealed the figure at Argos’s Christmas in July event as he forecast another strong festive period for mobile.

Bodson said: “We have seen astonishing growth in m-commerce in the past three years. At Argos, we recognised this trend early on and invested in agile teams focused on optimising apps that work for customers.”

The £1bn barrier was broken in Argos’s year to February 28 as the number of sales involving a mobile device grew 38%. The figure comprises sales that start on mobile devices, including the retailer’s check and reserve sales as well as home delivery.

Bodson said: “The true value of mobile is as a connector between the virtual and the physical world. Our customers like to shop cross-channel and 90% of purchases touch a store, with 35% using the convenience of check and reserve.

“It also works in reverse, with the new in-store browsers giving a real sense of the digital experience and encouraging them to try it.”

Leading the way

Argos is outstripping multichannel rival John Lewis when it comes to mobile sales. A John Lewis spokeswoman confirmed the department store group is yet to break the £1bn sales barrier.

“Argos is helped by the nature of the proposition because filling out a piece of paper with a little pencil is easily trumped by a mobile device.”

Michael Ross, Order Dynamics

Order Dynamics chief scientist Michael Ross said: “The ones doing mobile well understand it is not about taking a desktop site and cramming it into a different shape, it is about understanding the user journey.

“Argos is helped by the nature of the proposition because filling out a piece of paper with an annoyingly little pencil is easily trumped by a mobile device.”

Pure-play retailer Amazon is likely to be approaching £1bn of mobile sales in the UK.

Retail Week analysts estimate the core Amazon.co.uk site would have generated sales of £4.4bn of sales in 2014.

Mobile sales are thought to have accounted for nearly 20% of Amazon’s sales during 2014, while Amazon revealed this proportion was nearly 60% in the US during the Christmas trading period.

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