Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Argos is encouraging customers to beat the Black Friday rush by launching 14 days of Black Friday deals.
With discounts on over 60,000 products across homeware, electricals and toys, the retailer’s ‘Black Friday Bonanza’ started today (Wednesday November 15) and runs for 14 consecutive days through to Cyber Monday (November 27).
Argos said: ‘Falling on November 24, Black Friday – the most popular day in the shopping calendar – marks the start of the festive shopping season for customers, with many also taking advantage of the opportunity for self-gifting, adopting a ‘one for you, one for me’ state of mind. Cyber Monday also continues to be an important day for online shopping and falls around pay day for many people this year.’
The chain expects Black Friday to be dominated by digital platforms, after its website received more than 12 million visits in less than 24 hours last year. The biggest hour was from 9am to 10am with 720,000 visits to the Argos website, equating to 12,000 visits a minute and 18 orders per second.
Argos ceo John Rogers said: “Last year’s Black Friday was the biggest and most successful shopping day ever for Argos, with the first hours seeing the largest amount of online traffic in our history.
“We have been busy preparing for the Black Friday period for many months now, ensuring our digital channels, stores and distribution centres are all geared up in anticipation for high levels of demand.
“Black Friday and Cyber Monday have definitely changed how people shop for Christmas, with many using it for the initial burst of gift buying in the festive season, whether they choose to shop in store, online, or by mobile.”
Argos has more than 800 stores across the UK and Republic of Ireland, including 150 Argos stores within Sainsbury’s supermarkets and 200 digital collection points in Sainsbury’s stores. It has recruited an additional 10,000 seasonal workers to help serve customers in its stores over the festive period. On Black Friday itself, they will be joined by hundreds of head office workers helping out on the shop floor.
