Argos Site prioritises Ease of Access to Products

Argos has priotised ease of use in commissioning the redesign of its website. Customers can now reach any product from the entire 12,000-item catalogue in just three clicks. The choice can also be made to either have one, all or some of the purchases in the shopping basket paid for online and delivered to the home, or prepared for collection, or placed on 24-hour reservation at any store nationwide.

The Web is an increasingly important business channel for Argos: the number of website users has continued to double year on year and in the last financial year a significant proportion of the retail chain's £3Bn sales came from online customers.

The new website, which was designed by IT services and consulting firm Salmon Ltd, improves the ease of use with a 'get it in three' approach replacing the old site's six clicks to locating a product. It also offers a greater range of search parameters; customers can now browse by brand name, product features or within lifestyle zones: 'aiding inspiration to furnish a room in a particular style with complimentary products'.

Sue Pratt, the head of the ecommerce practice at Salmon, said: 'The Argos website is an excellent example of the next generation websites that are evolving into commerce-enabled portals. Uniquely, it brings the customer closer to the Argos back office fulfilment system, providing real-time feedback on stock availability at individual stores to give the customer the choice of whether to collect in person or order home delivery.'

And while improved functionality was important for Argos, the company specified that this must not be at the expense of performance.

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