Argos owner eyes profit rise, spurred by tablet sales Having been hurt by pressure from the internet as well as cash-strapped consumers tightening their belts, Argos has taken steps to overhaul its business, focusing more on online sales. The chain said on Thursday that online sales had ticked up during the two months to the beginning of March, meaning that online sales now account for 43pc of total sales, up from 40pc a year ago. Argos was also boosted by more customers buying products via their mobile phones. Overall, Argos saw like-for-like sales increase by 5.2pc to £501m in the last two months, driven by brisk sales of consumer electronics, particularly tablet computers. That helped offset weaker sales of homewares. "We have a store portfolio of about 740 stores, each and every one of those stores is profitable," said Terry Duddy, Home Retail chief executive. This isn't about saying we have a tranche of loss-making stores which we can close. He pointed out that the chain's digital strategy was linked to its shops, saying it was important to customers that they could pick up items in store that they ordered online. "We have a vast majority of sales that are ordered online but are collected in store and of those orders, 40pc or so will collect that product in a matter of hours," he said. Ahead of the Budget next week, Mr Duddy said that he would like to see personal allowances upped to £10,000. "It's important for people who are less affluent to have more money in their pocket, [that] would help growth," he added.