Home Retail's Argos has teamed up with eBay, the online marketplace, to offer a collection service that it hopes will drive customers to its stores, the firms said today.

A trial, expected to last six months, will enable shoppers to purchase products from about 50 selected eBay merchants and pick them up at around 150 Argos stores throughout Britain.

With the growth of online shopping, retailers are seeking to offer consumers faster, cheaper and more convenient ways to pick up their orders.

Home Retail has posted five straight years of profit decline and is reinventing Argos from a catalogue-led business to a digitally-led business, targeting a 15 percent rise in sales to £4.5 billion by 2018.

Argos pioneered Click & Collect services in 2000 and they currently account for about a third of its business.

Shares in Home Retail were up 1.5 per cent at 167 pence at 09.26 GMT.

Reuters