Home Retail prepares to launch clearance site for cut-price sofas

The retailer has set up a holding page at Saveonasofa.co.uk and will sell sofas from both Argos and Homebase on it. Home Retail maintains that the offer is “unique” as all the sofas are guaranteed to be in stock when the order is placed so shoppers will “experience a fast, friendly and efficient service”, promising to deliver within seven days.

The move follows the crash in the furniture sector that has resulted in retailers such as MFI, ScS, Rosebys and New Heights all falling into administration.

The clearance web site will be in competition with the newly launched Whatafind.com. Set up by Miranda Grubb, former director at interiors mail order specialist OKA, Whatafind.com sells furniture clearance stock from retailers such as Feather & Black and The Cotswold Company.

A Home Retail spokesman confirmed the launch and said it “will give new and existing customers of both Argos and Homebase the opportunity to purchase clearance lines from the sofa ranges at discounted prices”. He added that the retailer is working towards a launch date but is unable to confirm further details.

The holding page promises that customers will be able to search by product, cost or colour, and it will also offer extra discounts through its Deal of the Day and Last Few Left sections.

Home Retail also appears set to launch other clearance sites for separate product sectors as it has registered the domain names Saveonabed.co.uk and Saveonachair.co.uk, although neither has a live site yet. The more generic domain name Saveona.co.uk was also registered to Argos at the end of October this year.

The spokesman added that it is standard practice to purchase domain names that may be of use in the future.