Argos soon realised that out of town stores were much cheaper to build. The advantage of this is that you can build much bigger stores, and the age of the superstore began. These stores offer much bigger floor space, so you can store many more items than the traditional small high street store ever will. The benefits to the customers are huge as well. You get more choice and reduced prices because the overheads are smaller. Argos sells more items at lower prices, and customers save more money on these items. A two way winning deal if ever there was one.

Another advantage of these superstores is that by being positioned out of town allows for more parking spaces for customers, which is usually free, unlike the high street stores were you may well have to pay for parking time. This may put off potential custom, so the suburban argos stores tend to be much more profitable. The size of these stores is also an advantage to customers because the layout is much cleaner and less crowded. People can shop in a pleasant environment without feeling crowded or under pressure. There is also the benefit of aing your item in stock. The extra floor space and storage space means more products can be stored on site, which helps argos to reduce the distribution costs, and this is then passed on to the customers in reduced prices.

More and more argos superstores are opening each week because it is a winning formula. Eventually there will be a saturation point, as there is only so man stores that can be opened within close proximity of one another without directly competing with each other. However, it may be some time before this happens, and so argos will continue to grow its business until it is no longer viable to do so.

Larger items may require a more exoensive delivery charge such as televisions, sofas and kitchen appliances. You will typically need to sign for these when they are delivered, to make sure they have arrived in good condition. Argos will also help to move these bigger items into your home, which helps out a lot if you are on your own and may not be able to carry these heavy items. The charges for these kind of purchases can get quite expensive, and may cost in the region of £50.

There have been some criticisms of argos delivery times, with some people missing times, or goods not being delivered at all. To help to minimise any disruption to your day, argos does now offer a morning or afternoon delivery option, and tey also deliver on saturdays, although this will cost you a bit more cash. Another good idea is to have your stuff delivered to your workplace, this way you will not have to wait in at home, or even perhaps miss the driver when they come around. The only drawback with this, is if you have bigger items, which may then not fit in your car to take home. So make sure you are aware of this before you decide to switch delivery addresses.

Another feature that many people use is the reserve and collect option, which allows you to place your order and then pick up your goods at the local superstore. Again this helps to reduce waiting times, and also ensures you do not have a wasted journey to the store because your goods will be there waiting for you to collect. This is valuable especially at busy holiday periods such as xmas time.

They do this by optimising their website so that it does rank for their on name. This enables people to see their name first and so click through to their website and order goods and items. This is how argos makes money online. You can have the best website in the world, but if no one can find it then it is useless.

So it is essential that argos rank in the top position, as is the same for all companies. Argos also have a high street presence, and the argos catalogue is in over half the households in the UK at any given time. The cost of producing the catalogue, and the online version is huge, but the rewards are even bigger. The website has every single item that you will find in the physical catalogue, so there are thousands of pages, all linked together so you can quickly find what you are after.

Designing such a huge website is no easy thing, and making it easy to use is even more difficult. Customers will quickly leave or not use it if they cannot find what they want easily. Making the pages visible and clear is also essential, and perhaps the most important part is offering a secure way of shopping. People do not want to give their financial details over the internet unless they feel safe and secure to do so. Modern technology has taken care of this, and this is why online shopping has grown so big in the last decade. People now feel safe to shop online at argos, and this has boosted sales no end.

It is difficult to see how argos could improve their online presence, but they do advertise on national television all the time, and so bring more brand awareness every time they do advertise. They also advertise in the national press, in the popular newspapers and other mediums, which brings them into focus.

In summary, the argos way of doing business has grown into a fast and effective method. All advertising mediums are taken care of, and there are multiple ways of shopping to cater for everyone. Remember that not everybody has access to the internet, so the high street stores and the catalogue all play an important role in the argos business model. Many people still favour the traditional method of shopping, and like to physically see what they sre going to purchase before they buy. However, the online method of shopping offers a very quick ay of shopping, there are no waiting times this way. It is by far the most easy way to do your shopping, which is why it is so popular, and argos have got this down to a fine art because they were doing this long before he competition was. This experience has enabled argos to be the leader in the field, and is why they are the market leader.

Shopping trends do vary over time, and argos has been one of the first to embrace the power of online shopping. Their argos.co.uk website has been online for over 20 years now, and they have established a firm grip on their online sales, which is now the major source of their income. Other companies are also starting to realise this power, with Littlewoods being the prime example, they now have no high street shops at all, just an online presence. This major shift in marketing strategy has proved very successful so far. Other companies will be copying this in the near future, have no doubt about that.

Over 9 million visitors per month represents a huge volume of potential customers, and being ranked on top of the search results is a must for any company. Argos helps to do this with their affiliate program, which ofers incentives for people to advertise their products. It helps to grow brand awareness, and also guide potential customers to their website.

Online shopping has grown every year, and shows no sign of slowing down at all. In the future, the internet will overtake high street sales, as it offers a much more profitable medium to grow organically, and faster as well. Argos has cornered all types of shopping mediums to allow them to make shopping easier for its customers. This is why so many people choose to shop with argos, it is about as simple as it can get.

Will argos explore new ways of shopping with them? Probably, but at the present time it is difficult to see how tis could be done. The argos catalogue offers all the products in a visible way, as does the online website. You can quickly see what you are looking for, and the picture and description are in a very easy to understand format. The prices are clearly identifiable under each item in bold text, and the discount section and clearance sections feature prominantly on the first pages of both the catalogue and the online version.

The sections are clearly highlighted as well, in a very simple format, so you can quickly find what you are looking for. This makes the shopping experience much more pleasant. People eant fast and easy access to their potential goods, so by making this process as easy as possible it connects people with products, which is the whole idea of online shopping with argos.

There are critics of argos who say they have bad customer care, and they try to push service warranties and the infamous argos store card, which charge very high interest rates if you fail to pay off your balance in time. The fact is that the argos store card offers an alternative way of shopping, and if you keep a close eye on your balance sheet, then you can enjoy interest free shopping.

Delivery is usually within a few days depending on the size of the item you order. Larger goods such as televisions and sofas may take longer, but you will find all the expected delivery times when you place your order. You can also specify the time you want your goods delivered, so you do not have to wait in all day. This is a really good feature that argos has been keen to roll out, and it helps to minimse disruption to your day. There is nothing worse than having to wait all day for something that may not be delivered. A good tip is to have your items delivered to your workplace if you don’t fancy waiting at home.

Argos will charge you for delivery, and the good thing is that the price does not go up if you order more than one item. In fact it is better to order a few things at the same time, so you can save a little on the delivery charges. Be sure to check the availability of your goods before doing though, to make sure they will all be delivered at the same time.

Shopping with argos can have it drawbacks, mainly because they are such a big company. There have been cases of poor delivery and customer service in the past. Because argos is so big, it is always difficult to keep track of everything, and it is inevitable that mistakes will happen once in a while.

If you visit one of the many argos superstores, you can just pick up your order right away, and so there is no delivery charges to pay. Many people use the argos reserve system that allows customers to pay and reserve goods, and then pick them up from the superstore. Larger goods may be a problem here, and it is best to have them deliered if you are not sure you can actually lift them to your car.

The argos superstores are no much better equiped to deal with shoppers, and they are much more efficient at serving people quickly and safely. The long queues that used to be a big problem at argos stores are much smaller, and the whole shopping experience is better. The experience and feedback from customers has helped a lot in this respect, and argos has listened to it’s customers and gave them what they want. This has also helped argos to lead the way in customer shopping, and other companies are looking to copy this model of service and satisfaction.

The argos catalogue is also available online at the main argos website, and you will find every item in the catalogue is also online. Finding what you are after is very easy using the simple navigation buttons on the website, and there are many special online only discounts and clearance items at the website. It is so popular that the argos website is one of the most visited websites in the UK, with over 9 million people visiting it every month, and at xmas time this rises to around 11 million people every month.

The online catalogue has proved that argos has captured all available media outlets, and they know how to grab people’s attention and offer the best customer experience, and the fastest and easiest way for people to buy things. Argos spend a lot of money on advertising on television to get their business in front of a mass audience, and get into peoples minds, so they automatically think of the argos brand when they perhaps think of buying things. This is not a new thing, but if you advertise heavily enough you get into peoples minds this way.
The catalogue comes out twice a year, and each new edition is met with great anticipation as there are hundreds of price cuts and discounts when this happens. There are also many clearance items from the previous edition, which argos aims to get rid of, and so these are the best times to get your hands on a bargain.