ARGOS KEEPING UP WITH TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AND SOCIAL MEDIA

The diligent adoption of social media and modern day digital technology cannot be better exemplified by a business than Argos, known in digital arena as the industry leaders.

Argos with 5 million stores worldwide, out of which they opened 53 new digital stores, requires them to target their customers both tangibly and virtually. Thus, they came up with an innovative manner to effectively create a harmony between their physical and online world, and improving their customers’ shopping experience both digitally and in-store. They employed the services of many digital and online marketing, sales and social media tools, strategically giving a boost to their sales and customer experience.

              (Argos Future Digital Store)

For instance Brandwatch Analytics allowed Argos to know exactly how their customers were reacting on social media specifically Twitter, to the revolutionary change they brought into their digital stores, meanwhile Argos could categorize and organize this information and benefit from its use. Most recently, having implemented Scala digital signage solution technology by Pixel Inspiration in 7 UK stores, Argos is able to enhance their sales system,

deliver an all-inclusive brand experience to consumer and better manage their customer communication. The product browsers have shifted to iPads instead of printed catalogs and a 60 sec fast-paced collection service has been introduced (Scala.com, 2016). Also Argos utilized the services of Adobe Marketing Cloud including Adobe Analytics and Adobe Experience manager solutions, multiplying their marketing revenues. It not only enabled them measure their customer purchase behavior and to engage better with their customers on social media, enhancing their brand relevance, but also directed Argos to comprehend which social media channel to invest in and how to quantify their results.

(Retail Store Rankings)

Moreover Argos implemented Conversocial technology to power up its customer service performance on different social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, etc. It enables Argos to reach their consumers even before they launch any official complain, just by tracking their comments on social media about their reaction on purchase and product experience (Roberts, 2015). According to a study last year, Argos turned out to have the largest share of search for several holidays, especially Christmas, retail period, besides the brand Amazon. These organic searches provide a ripe opportunity to online retailers, and such effective strategies and their effective implementation that Argos has put together, enhance the search visibility and overall brand equity of retailers. 

Argos has two separate social media accounts: to manage their advertising and promotion, and to respond to their customers, that they employ effectively as can be observed in a tweet that got viral last year, showing their social media tactics and immediate customer response. According to a research by IMGroup, Argos is rated number one in providing social customer service on Twitter and stand in second ranking for the same on Facebook, being overall second best customer service provider on social media. The same study indicated that 53% of customers today expect brands to respond to their query or complaint within or less than 1 hour. Not only Argos upped their standards by digitalising and revolutionizing their business and customer experience but also launched one of the biggest campaigns to make their customers aware of their digital transformation, comprising of TV, Cinema and outdoor advertisements and a complete renovation of Argos mobile app and website. 

(Digital Catalogs)

Argos further took an innovative step by partnering up with Transport for London network and opened first ever Underground digital store, Argos Collect; which is estimated to generate 3.4 billion pounds in the coming 10 years. A route where 4.2 million travels take place on daily basis, Argos gained a hefty customer base. Digital customers today have tremendous demands for convenience, enhanced choice and speed in fulfilling orders; especially for the concept of click and collect which caters for customers to collect their orders placed online via a store or shop located nearby. Argos is considered a leader in this particular feature, and has now gone one step ahead by introducing click and reserve feature as well, letting consumers hold their ordered commodity until they can conveniently pick it up (Morris, 2014). All these efforts on their social media marketing strategy implementation and technology innovations has rendered Argos a Return on Investment of 7000% on their transformation campaign in initial 6 months.