Argos to invest more into home delivery

UK retailer Argos is looking to further improve its 'last mile' home delivery offering, as online and mobile sales continue to grow as a percentage of its business.

The multichannel player, which said that 43% of its revenue was generated online in the first half of its financial year with 22% of sales touching a mobile device at some point in the transaction journey, has partnered with Paragon Software Systems to optimise its transport management for home delivery.

Argos offers various specific time-slots for customer orders, and representatives from its senior executive team have spoken at industry conferences to highlight the importance of meeting the ever-evolving requirements of its customers. The vehicle routing and scheduling solution from Paragon has now been linked with Argos's existing multichannel order processing systems to aid this process further.

Paragon says that its software can re-optimise transport schedules as new orders are added, by taking into account delivery areas, available resources and existing deliveries already confirmed. Argos is using the vendor's tools to analyses and evaluate possible delivery times for new orders within the customer's requested time frame, with the ultimate aim being to improve efficiency in the often complicated home delivery process.

William Salter, managing director of Paragon, said his company's home delivery solution benefits retailers "by enabling multichannel ordering processes to be linked directly with real-time routing and scheduling optimisation".

During last month's half-year results announcement, John Walden, CEO of Argos parent company Home Retail Group, indicated that the successful delivery of the Argos Transformation Plan over its remaining three years continues to be the business's main strategic priority and its greatest potential source of shareholder value, which means investment in digital is set to continue.

Key to that approach will be the opening of more digitally-led stores across the UK, as well as significant focus on developing its online, mobile and fulfilment offerings in line with changing consumer behaviours.

He also indicated that Argos's sister company Homebase will be looking to accelerate its digital capabilities by leveraging recent investments made in Argos.

Source: Ben Sillitoe - Essential Retail.

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