Yesterday Home Retail Group, owner of Argos and Homebase, reported a 3% increase in sales for the six months to 31 August.
The firm attributed Argos’ 2.3% and Homebase’s 5.9% increase in sales to its turnaround plan, which it says is starting to take effect.
Part of the turnaround plan is to focus on Argos’ website. This strategy is proving successful, with the company reporting that 43% of Argos’ revenues were generated online - with 16% of sales generated through smartphones and tablets.
As part of its turnaround strategy, Home Retail Group is also continuing to revamp its Homebase stores.
Recently Argos has made a number of significant announcements that could feed into the brand’s future success. Last month Argos announced a partnership with Ebay, where shoppers will be able to collect their good from an Argos store after ordering them on Ebay.
Argos has also tried to get a slice of the tablet pie by following brands such as Tesco and launching its own-brand tablet, MyTablet.
Using YouGov’s brand perception tool, BrandIndex, we can look back at the consumer perception scores for both Argos and Homebase over the last six months. Both brands have achieved an increase in their consumer perceptions scores, which helps to explain their improved financial performance.
Argos has significantly increased its overall Index score (a composite of six key image attributes) from 21.5 on 1 April to its current score of 26.2 (+4.7), while Homebase increased its Index from 16.9 to its current level of 19 (2.1).
