Multichannel Poster Child: Argos

Here in the UK one of the retailers regularly held aloft for being a successful multichannel retailer is Argos. Pioneering kiosks, click & collect amongst others.

However, compared to most store based retailers, Argos have a couple of distinct advantages:

• Each store is effectively a mini warehouse with tight stock control
• The customer journey is almost identical across all channels

Let's take the latter point and observe the typical in-store customer journey...

1. Customer enters the store and is presented a catalogue to browse through
2. Products of interest are placed on a list and can be checked for availability
3. Customer takes the list to the checkout and pays
4. They now wait for the product to be picked from the local warehouse and delivered to the collection desk in the store

Does that all sound familiar to those of us working on eCommerce websites? How easy must that have been to transfer this business model to the web and phone ordering? "Hey Joe, this Internet thing, how do we get ourselves on it? - Heck! It's just a virtual version of our store with a large warehouse attached, we just need to get the home delivery logistics in place"

Having only display stock on the shelves means they must have much more accurate stock visibility, none of this late check in of received stock only for it to already be out on the floor and half of it already gone! (of course this wouldn't be issue if there was real-time reconciliation between ePOS and stock management systems, as well as automated check-in).

Such stock accuracy means cross-channel functionality such as 'Click & Collect' can be implemented with confidence.