Growth in mCommerce has helped Argos report its first growth in sales for five years, up 2.1 per cent in the fiscal year 2012 (up to 2 March) to £3.9bn.

Mobile purchases made up 10 per cent of the retailers total sales during the year.

That figure has jumped significantly since it announced its half-year results in October, up from seven per cent. By our maths, that means that in the second half of the year – from September to March – mobile must have been closer to 13 per cent of sales.

Multichannel sales as a whole, meanwhile, increased to 51 per cent of total sales, and visits to Argos website and app increased by 24 per cent.

“This was an encouraging year with both businesses growing their market shares. Argos delivered like-for-like sales growth for the first time in five years and multichannel sales broke through the 50 per cent threshold,” said Terry Duddy, chief executive of Home Retail Group. “Our strong financial position enables Argos to deliver on its transformation plan to become a digital retail leader, and for Homebase to invest in the rollout of its new proposition.”