Argos partnered with Bazaarvoice to improve its multichannel shopping experience and sales. Bazaarvoice's solutions allowed 1.6 million pieces of customer generated content to be shared across Argos' online, mobile, and offline channels. This helped customers make more confident purchasing decisions. Including reviews improved click-through rates by 36% and conversion rates by 30-50%. Bazaarvoice also helped Argos gain valuable customer insights that were used to refine products and inventory. As a result, Argos was able to deliver a seamless multichannel experience and increase its multichannel sales to over £1.9 billion.

1. CLIENT SUCCESS STORY
Argos
1.6 million pieces of customer content improve
Argos’ shopping experience and boost
multichannel sales
Company Profile
http://www.argos.co.uk
Milton Keynes,
United Kingdom
Retail Argos is the UK multichannel retailer per excellence. In fact, in 2011, multichannel sales
Bazaarvoice Solutions comprised 46% of total sales for Argos and grew to over £1.9bn. Whether online, through
Conversations a mobile-optimised site, or via mobile applications for iOS and Android, Argos serves
Customer Since consumers wherever they choose to shop.
2010
Developing new multichannel strategies and partnering with Bazaarvoice allowed Argos to excel
in new areas of growth.
Challenge 1: Delivering a seamless Challenge 2: Ensuring that customers
multichannel experience to encourage receive the product information they
cross-sales need to make confident decisions
n important part in Argos’ growth strategy is connecting
A mplementing Bazaarvoice Conversations led to 1.6
I
customer feedback across channels and touch-points. million pieces of customer content being generated
To address this goal, Argos partnered with Bazaarvoice across channels. As Argos largely sells through non-
to ensure the same user-generated content would be traditional channels like catalogues and kiosks, where
available across channels, whether a customer is using shoppers can’t physically experience the products,
the Argos “click collect” service to reserve a product via connecting this information for shoppers is a strategic
smartphone and pick it up in person, or texting to reserve priority for Argos that Bazaarvoice helped achieve.
a product they’ve seen in the catalogue. Argos also relies
on social across channels to boost website visits and Bassett reports 50% conversion rate uplift for customers
sales. The company’s social team engages with customers who interact with ratings and reviews, and 30% uplift
through Facebook and Twitter, and via questions and for the question and answer functionality.
answers on the website.
strategy of including user reviews in every channel
The
in referral sales per Bazaarvoice’s
Results: £4.36 is also paying off. For example, promotional emails with
“social alerts” email sent. This system informs customers reviews have a 36% higher click-through rate than those
when their reviews are posted or questions answered, without customer feedback.
which encourages website traffic and boost conversion.
On a weekly basis, they directly generate 3,000-
“Conversations plays a big part in helping the
4,000 transactions.
customer choose and make sure the product
is suitable for them based on what other
to use real-time analysis of the
“We’re able customers have fed back.”
online channel to improve service on Jim Bassett
another channel.”
Jim Bassett, eCommerce Operations Manager, Argos
Telephone: +44 (0)208 080 1100 europe@bazaarvoice.com Learn more at www.bazaarvoice.co.uk

2. CLIENT SUCCESS STORY
Argos
Data intelligence: Bazaarvoice’s
measurable impact defines a new
KPI for Argos
Product reviews have proven to be a strategic gold mine of
customer insights. For instance, Argos uses the average rating of
a product range as part of its Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
for its trading teams, with a focus on rating improvement over
time.
In addition, thanks to comprehensive reports, customer feedback The bottom line
assists in defining multichannel strategies. Here are just a few
examples: Argos understands exactly how selling across channels is both
a tremendous opportunity and a difficult challenge for a retailer.
Instead of using the number of product returns as an They’ve used customer feedback to refine product offerings and
indicator, Argos uses online customer reviews as a great improve the shopping experience while successfully creating
way of uncovering dissatisfaction with products that may a high-quality customer experience across multiple channels
have never been returned. and, with the Bazaarvoice software, converted shoppers into
customers.
supply team uses online customer feedback to improve
The
catalogues every six months, and make inventory decisions
based on customer sentiment.
Anytime the company launches a new product range –
such as books – they use reviews to gauge the customer
response.
“We put content throughout the customer journey,
no matter where they shop, because it’s very
important that the customer sees that content. It will
have a real impact on their conversion to sales.”
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