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Argos and Homebase - Can Hitwise Data Inform Valuing the Listing?
March 28, 2006
GUS announced yesterday that it would list Argos Retail Group and Experian as separate companies on the LSE this year. An interesting application of Hitwise data is to analyse the strength of a company online as an input to inform valuing a company. Following are some data points that might be interesting in considering the Argos and Homebase (both part of the Argos Retail Group) online businesses:
- Market share of UK internet visits to www.argos.co.uk and www.homebase.co.uk have increased by 17% and 18% respectively year on year in February.
- Argos is consistently among the most visited sites in the UK - ranking 60th among all categories of websites, 9th among Shopping and Classifieds websites, and 3rd among Department Stores.
- Homebase is a much smaller site in terms of visits, but strong in its respective categories. The site ranks 109 among all categories of websites and 6th among Shopping and Classifieds - House and Garden websites.
- Argos and Homebase both enjoy strong brand strength online. In terms of the share of searches sending visits to Shopping and Classifieds websites, the term "argos" ranked 3rd in the past four weeks, behind "ebay" and "amazon". The term "homebase" ranked 21st. While the share of UK internet searches for "argos" increased year on year by 10%, the share of searches for "homebase" decreased slightly.
- Argos and Homebase operate in highly competitive environments with the Shopping and Classifieds category the top downstream category from both websites. 43% of visits from Argos went to Shopping and Classifieds websites in February, with 9% going to the Appliances and Electronics sub-category. 2.42% of visits from Argos went to Comet UK in February and 2.15% went to Currys. This is likely a result of consumers actively comparing offers on competing websites. The top downstream category from Homebase is also Shopping and Classifieds with 24% of visits going to websites in the House and Garden sub-category. Homebase's competitor, B&Q received 10% of downstream visits from Homebase in February.
- Argos receives its traffic from diverse sources. Search engines accounted for 37% of visits to the site and Shopping and Classifieds websites accounted for 28% of visits in February.
- Homebase is much more dependent on search engines for visits, with 55% of visits coming from Search Engines in February - and Google UK accounting for nearly one-third (32%) of visits.
- Argos' website seems to appeal most to young, cost-conscious families. According to Experian's Mosaic lifestyle data, Argos is over-indexed relative to the online population with the Mosaic groups Happy Families (families with focus on career and home, mostly younger age groups now raising children), Municipal Dependency (Families on lower incomes who often live in large council estates where there is little owner occupation) and Blue Collar Enterprise (People who though not well-educated are practical and enterprising and may well have exercised their right to buy).
- Homebase seems to appeal to a slightly older and well-off segments, over-indexed relative to the online population with the Mosaic Groups Happy Families (described above), Suburban Comfort (families who are successfully established in comfortable mature homes. Children are growing up and finances are easier), and Grey Perspectives (independent pensioners living in their own homes who are relatively active in their lifestyles).
Top 10 Shopping and Classifieds - Department Stores, Based on UK Visits in February
Top 10 Shopping and Classifieds - House and Garden, Based on UK Visits in February
Posted by Heather Hopkins at 09:56 PM
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