6


TV shopping


TV shopping insider D


Darren Frost, Argos TV


arren Frost has worked at Argos since he left further education, gaining experience in the stock room and on the shop floor. He spent two years as


Republic of Ireland operations manager before landing his current role of head of Argos TV, which he took in February 2011. In an interview with Miri Thomas, Frost discusses the challenges of adding a TV shopping channel to an established retail infrastructure.


MT: What led you to work in the world of DRTV? DF: My background is in retail with Argos where I have been since I left further education. During my time with Argos I have held numerous operational roles across both head office and field environments, most recently as operations manager taking responsibility for the Republic of Ireland business. Argos TV presented an exciting opportunity that I wanted to be a part of because of both its uniqueness and potential.


MT: What does your remit cover?


DF: I oversee all aspects of the Argos TV business. After initially taking responsibility for launching the channel, my role is now about ongoing management of the business including setting the strategy and customer proposition, building the commercial plan, overseeing the studio operation and steering the look and feel of the channel.


MT: What challenges did you have to overcome to launch Argos TV? DF: As an established retailer, we had some of the critical infrastructure already in place ahead of launching the channel such as a delivery network, existing transactional website and commercial teams sourcing thousands of products. Some people may then assume that it was simply a case of adding a studio and production crew and you are good to go. However, to leverage the scale of Argos and offer a fully multichannel customer experience, we needed to face and overcome challenging hurdles such as sharing a live stock pool with the rest of the business, integrating with legacy systems and processes designed for a catalogue model and a dynamic pricing model which changes daily. Finally, as we have around 750 stores with thousands of customer-facing colleagues, we have to make sure they are all equipped to deal with any query that arises from the shopping channel so they can provide the excellent service we are proud of.


MT: What main benefits does Argos derive from this new route to market? DF: We believe the TV shopping market is a good opportunity for us to acquire new customers in a resilient, growing market. In addition, having an in-house production capability as connected TV, social media and m-commerce continue to evolve is exciting and we are already using these assets on our website with encouraging results. TV, being the medium it is allows us to support some of the more complicated categories to the customer’s benefit, such as technology, where the customer values a demonstration and homewares and furniture where aesthetics are key to the purchase decision.


MT: What project are you working on right now and what else can we expect? DF: We are working on a variety of things at the moment, some of which are further developments and others are more continuous improvements as we look to incorporate the learnings gained from our first nine months on air. While some of the aspects of TV shopping may differ from other retail models, I still believe that a strong customer proposition is key, so what you can expect to see from the channel in 2012 is even better choice, value and convenience. We will be working really hard to bring even better deals to our customers, making it easier for customers to interact and engage with us and bringing many more new exciting products to the channel. In fact, if anybody out there has or knows about new, exciting products that could work on TV, please contact us!


MT: What, in your opinion, are the major issues facing DRTV specialists right now? DF: Obviously, the economy and the pressures being felt by customers are making for challenging conditions for retailers. In addition, the digital switchover


Bringing products to life on Argos TV


in the UK is concluding, which has been a good source of growth over recent years. More broadly, people’s shopping habits are changing with technology and lifestyles. We are rapidly moving to a place where customers will always be online via smartphones, tablets, wi-fi, connected TV… and this brings with it transparency and true convenience. Customers will be able to research, compare and purchase their goods for delivery or collection when and where they prefer, getting a great deal regardless of where the first inspiration originated from.


MT: What advice would you give to a retailer considering launching a TV channel? DF: TV shopping is about obsessing about the detail: products, selections, scheduling, execution, demonstrations, guests and repetition. All of these individual components play an important role and constant fine-tuning will impact results.


For a regular look at the world of TV shopping, sign up to receive our free enewsletter DC’s TV Shopping Week. To subscribe, visit www. catalog-biz.com/ newsletters.asp


MT: What would you say are the key ingredients to a successful DRTV segment? DF: Highly demonstrable, quality products at great prices presented in an informative and engaging way; ideally something that the customer might not have thought about in the same way until seeing it on TV doing what it does best! Obviously, customers also need to be able to get their hands on the product and enjoy it quickly after making the decision to purchase and have confidence in the brand should there be anything else they need.


Darren Frost Direct Commerce | Catalogue e-business | www.catalog-biz.com


MT: Where do you see TV shopping in five years’ time? DF: I think it is incredibly hard to say at this precise moment where TV shopping is heading. I say this because there are many exciting developments that will influence the situation, such as connected TV and the ongoing development of mobile commerce and smartphones. What won’t change is customers looking for inspiration and bargains while wanting to be entertained.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36