Argos will add another 200,000 marketplace and supplier direct fulfilled products to its range by February 2027, Sainsbury’s has confirmed. Argos’s own sales are still going backwards.

Argos sales were down 1.8% in the 28 weeks to 12th September, excluding marketplace gross merchandise value, in Sainsbury’s half-year results published on 22nd October.

Sainsbury’s called the Argos Marketplace launch a success and said Argos will keep adding sellers and products.

Argos books only its commission on third-party marketplace orders as sales, not the full order value. Argos doesn’t publish seller numbers or marketplace GMV.

Sainsbury’s blamed part of the Argos decline on a highly competitive market. It also pointed to weaker demand for bigger-ticket items such as furniture during the long summer heatwave.

Argos was also hit by moving its legacy storecard customers onto a new digital financial services product. Sainsbury’s said plenty of new customers signed up, but not enough to make up for the disruption.

Argos is now classed as a discontinued operation after Sainsbury’s agreed in July to sell it to Swift Partners. Argos lost £365m in the half. That figure includes a £215m non-cash impairment and a £102m provision for separating the business.

The Argos loss tipped Sainsbury’s into a statutory loss after tax of £164m, compared with a £155m profit a year ago. Sainsbury’s still expects Argos’s full-year trading profit to match or beat last year’s.

Sainsbury’s continuing business is growing. Sales excluding fuel rose 2.6% to £13,959m. Grocery was up 2.9%, while general merchandise and clothing fell 3.4%.

Sainsbury’s Groceries Online sales grew 9%. OnDemand, Sainsbury’s rapid delivery service, grew sales 27% and now runs from almost 95% of its stores.

The Argos Marketplace is built on Mirakl.

Sainsbury’s expects the Swift Partners deal to complete by the end of February 2027, with Argos fully separated by February 2029.