Argos Marketplace goes live with 80 sellers

As the news broke last week that Sainsbury’s are to sell Argos, the Argos marketplace quietly went live with a soft launch. The marketplace is powered by Mirakl, so a very familiar platform for most UK brands and retailers.

Currently the Argos Marketplace has almost 80 brands and retailers on the platform, where they are known as Trusted Sellers, including some well known to ChannelX including Bigjigs Toys, Charles Bentley, Living and home, MH Star, Rex Brown, Rinkit, Trojan Electronics and many more.

If an item is sold by a Trusted Seller, it’ll clearly say “Sold by a Trusted Seller” or the name of the seller next to the item, browsing and shopping works the same, but your Argos Marketplace payment goes to the Trusted Seller, not to Argos.

You cannot return Trusted Seller items to an Argos store (although Argos Marketplace say that this might change in the future – for now, you’ll either post your item back, or the seller will arrange a courier to come and collect it.

Good news for buyers, you’ll earn Nectar Points the same as you would for a regular Argos order and many payment options like Credit & Debit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay can be used (but not Argos Pay). Bad news for regular customers, you cannot buy Trusted Seller items using Argos Pay, gift cards or your Nectar points.

Support for buyers will be provided by Trusted Sellers, Argos ask buyers not to contact Argos support teams as their team won’t be equipped to answer your questions. Now down to the important stuff – how does the Argos Marketplace order search results? Well it’s much as you’d expect on any other marketplace.

The factors Argos consider will vary depending on the search term, category and type of product involved, but typically include: How closely a product matches your search terms and selected filters Whether the product is available to order Customer interest in and engagement with the product Product ratings and reviews Product and seller performance information Other indicators designed to help ensure results are useful, reliable and relevant Some products may receive additional visibility through paid promotional placements.

Where this happens, the placement will be clearly identified so that buyers can distinguish sponsored content from organically ranked search results. And if you want to become an Argos Marketplace Trusted partner, you can apply here.