eBay and Argos partner on Click & Collect service

eBay has partnered with Argos in the UK to make it easier to shop online without having to wait in for those pesky deliveries. eBay President, Devin Wenig, was in London today to announce a Click & Collect service, so you can buy online and collect your item from an Argos store.

The scheme will launch with 50 selected eBay merchants, so we’re talking about new goods, often bought using the Buy It Now option on the site, rather than the more traditional second-hand auction fare. Which put paid to our fanciful ideas of offloading all our tat into an Argos warehouse on the off-chance someone bids on it. 150 Argos stores, out of around 700, will participate in the initial trial, though there are no details as of yet how these will be distributed around the country.

View latest Argos discount codes

eBay claims that 40% of consumers choose to use some kind of Click and Collect service last Christmas and that this method of shopping was growing so rapidly it should be on a par with home delivery in the near future. Retailers have been experimenting with various versions, such as Amazon Lockers, from which you can pick up or return items.

Argos is looking to see how the trial boosts visits to its stores, and believes that its distribution network makes it ideally suited for such a partnership. It is also moving more stock from general distribution centres to local stores to improve its own Click & Collect service.

The partnership forms an obvious competitor for Amazon Marketplace, where smaller retailers can sell their goods and have the logistics dealt with by Amazon from its huge distribution centres.

Devin also announced that eBay Now will be coming to the UK early next year, delivering your shopping to wherever you are in just one hour.