Sainsbury‘s boss Mike Coupe has announced ambitious plans to introduce Argos click-and-collect points at 100 convenience stores in preparation for the Christmas period.
This most recent push comes a year after Sainsbury‘s acquired the catalogue retailer, and highlights Coupe‘s goal of having 2000 Argos points of presence in an effort to fight back against Amazon.
“Customers are demanding more and more flexibility and more speed in terms of the way they shop with us,” Coupe said.
“We would argue very strongly that with the 2000 points of presence, the great Argos digital capability and the supply chain that backs that up – and the fact that those businesses have access to 27 million customers a week – it gives us a reasonably powerful combination to compete in future.
READ MORE: Sainsbury‘s £130m takeover of Nisa grinds to a halt
“But I don’t pretend for a moment that Amazon and others aren’t going to be significant competitors.”
Currently there are 100 Argos “store-in-stores” and Sainsbury‘s expects this number to hit 150 by Christmas.
Further to the roll out of collection points throughout its own convenience store estate, Coupe intends to adopt Amazon‘s model of using small independent retailers as click-and-collect points.
Earlier this month it was revealed that Sainsbury‘s had paused talks with convenience store giant Nisa for a possible takeover.
Thought to be a direct response to its larger rival Tesco‘s propised takeover of Booker, which supplies hundreds of convenience stores throughout the UK, Sainsbury‘s has halted progress until a CMA decision been made on whether the merger will negatively effect the UK’s grocery market.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
