Argos has announced it is to trial in-store Wi-Fi at its stores to diversify its offering, scotsman.com reports.
The high street mainstay recently announced it is to ramp up its customer service profile in a bid to compete with nearest rival Amazon. One of these is provision of free, in-store Wi-Fi that could be used to help browsers make a purchase via their smartphones or tablets, instead of having to queue or manually enter details into the self-service machines.
As part of the wider bid to move away from the old catalogue-based model, any users who order online should have their goods fast-tracked in-store to ensure they’re not left waiting excessive lengths at the collection points.
This departure from the business model which made Argos so popular comes after the retailer reversed plummeting profits to record a six per cent increase over the last twelve months. Set to take three years, the £300 million shake-up could see Wi-Fi provision become just the first in a long-line of changes for the retailer.
Argos’s latest move wasn’t without its critics, however, who claimed that offering Wi-Fi made it even easier for consumers to cross-reference prices against the likes of Amazon, which can often come out cheaper. Despite this, Terry Duddy, chief executive of Argos’s parent company Home Retail, claimed the move was a positive one.
“We’re cool with
