// Argos has stopped printing its catalogue after online shopping increases in popularity
// The retailer was printing its catalogue just twice a year as more shoppers jumped online
Argos has reportedly scrapped its catalogue division after 47 years as more customers use the Argos website either to order products for home delivery or collect in-store.
In recent years, the retailer had been publishing its catalogue just twice each year as online shopping became preferable to print.
The Sainsbury’s-owned chain informed its staff of the move on Wednesday, Daily Mail reported.
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Argos chief marketing officer Mark Given said the decision to scrap the catalogue “weighed heavily” on him, even though the team had been contemplating it for “some time”.
He added that over the past decade, the number of catalogues printed dropped from 10 million to three million.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, shoppers were shifting towards online shopping anyway, but the crisis enforced consumers to learn the technicalities of ecommerce as many were forced to shield and stay at home.
Separately, Big 4 grocer Sainsbury’s acquired Argos in 2017 after paying £1.4 billion for Home Retail Group.
The takeover marked the beginning of the end for the catalogue, with the retailer removing printed catalogues from a small number of stores to test demand.
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2 Comments. Leave new
RIP Argos.
Its the end of an era, but looking back to 1973, home computers were still in the future, albeit 3-4 years, and the fledgling internet another 25+ years away, and going to the shops to buy and carry home was what we knew and did, amd home shopping was done by mail order, posting your order off, or phoning it through, and delivered “x” number of days later.after all, i grew up in the 1970s/80s and its what i grew up with, but with the evolution of the internet, its demonstrated how lifestyles have changed,