Photograph by Jaggery
Shoppers buying goods through the online marketplace eBay will soon be able to pick up their deliveries from Argos stores nearby in a “click-and-collect” scheme.
The trial is being rolled out to around 150 Argos retail outlets across the UK over the next six months, with the scheme a direct competitors to Amazon’s growing installation base of Amazon Lockers in local shops.
Argos has also been expanding their own click-and-collect service, where cutomers can buy online and pick up their goods from the Argos shop on their local high street. The idea with this tie-in with eBay, will be that if someone is already going to their local Argos store to pick up a purchase form eBay, they are more likely to buy their otehr purchases there.
Whilst Argos and eBay are not direct competitors, with much of eBay’s business in second-hand good – it will be interesting to see whether this agreement will have any positive or negative impact on Argos’ sales figures.
Alongside their individual schemes, Amazon, eBay, and a number of other ecommerce stores are part of the growing Collect+ scheme which allows parcels to be delivered to a wide number of local corner shops.
All of these schemes are designed to address the major point of friction for online purchases – the need to be at home when the item is delivered.
