Argos trials regional hub as part of hub and spoke distribution concept

In last week’s trading update, Home Retail Group said that Argos has made meaningful progress in developing new strategic capabilities since the introduction of its Transformation Plan to ‘reinvent Argos as a digital retail leader’.

The trading statement also advised that Argos is trialling a regional hub to enhance the capabilities of the existing hub and spoke distribution system.

The national hub and spoke network supports circa 20,000 products in local hubs which enables faster fulfilment via home delivery or store collection. The addition of a regional hub will provide the potential to hold a significantly higher number of products, including third party products, for same day fulfilment.

The updated distribution system allowed Argos to introduce ‘Fast Track’ - a same day delivery service that launched in October 2015 – which helped to increase internet sales by 13% year-on-year for the months of November and December.

Uptake of the FastTrack delivery offer is understood to have been strong, with one-man home deliveries rising by 82% during the same period.

John Walden, CEO of parent company Home Retail Group, said: “FastTrack, together with our now-proven store concession model and improvements in digital channels, drove increases in digital sales, digital participation and home delivery. I continue to believe that the capabilities being developed in the Argos Transformation Plan will position Argos as a retail leader in an increasingly digital future.”

Source : Insight DIY Team