Does Anyone Still Want To Be The Best?

Over the last month there have been a succession of multiple retailers announcing their move in to the Toy Market. These companies operate in very different sectors and are a mixture of online and bricks and mortar retailers but they have 2 things in commom.

1.  They have all chosen to move in to the toy market by offering ranges online rather than in store
2. The reason for moving in to toys has nothing whats so ever to do with toys themselves!

Sainsburys is adding thousands of new non food products to improve its margin, Shop Direct has bought the Woolworths name with its massive brand recognition, Waitrose is leveraging the ranges of its sister company John Lewis and Play.com wants to extend its ranges

What ever happened to wanting to be the best? Can you imagine what Selfridges would look like if the ranges had been selected solely to improve their margin? Or would Hamleys be the iconic shop it now is if they started out without any passion

Selling on line is a cheaper and easier way to move in to product area because you don’t need to stock stores and you can keep running costs to a bare minimum.However it also pushes you in to stocking recognised brands as they are the most searched for items and they are self explanantory when listed on line.

What you don’t do is pick unknown and unusual products which you believe in. Why bother dealing with a small supplier when you can deal with a couple of large ones with wide ranges and lots of licensed products? Why take a risk on an unknown toy when thousands of people search the internet for Bob the Builder everyday

Its not that we mind large companies selling licensed products. There is a large market for licensed toys and multiple retailers can service it very effectively. Now that Woolworths has gone there is a large gap in the market and it makes sense for retailers such as Shop Direct and Play.com to want to fill it.

However it would be nice to see a retailer moving in to toys because they thought they could do it better anyone else. How refreshing it would be to have a retailer announce that they loved the toy market and thought that they could bring a fresh perspective and masses of enthusiasm to it.

Best Years are a soft toy wholesaler specialising in knitted and ethical toy ranges. We deal with the independent sector who love what they do and have a passion for their ranges. This sometimes makes them very fussy but we like that!

 

Effectively

ebay gets stroppy

ebay has today asked its 14m UK members to petition the European Union to stop manufacturers and wholesalers restricting sales of their products on ebay

They claim that in a recent ebay survey of 450 small British online retailers 49% have said that suppliers would not allow them to sell their goods, or tried to impose retail prices on them

We have mixed opinions about ebay. As a toy wholesaler we would be daft to ignore one of the fastest growing sectors of the retail market, but we also have to protect our other customers

All retailers have charges to pay before they can start making any money. If you have a high street store you have to pay rent, rates, electricity and staff before you can even start to make a profit. If you have an internet shop you have to pay for websites, credit card facilities and advertising to get your shop noticed. In order to have repeat customers they bith must offer a wide and ever changing range of products

If you sell on ebay you have to pay Pay Pal and ebay charges, but there are 2 major differences and they are both centered around the fact that a certain % of people selling on ebay are doing it as a hobby or side line and not the main source of income

1. You do not have to have a wide range of products you can just pick the ones with the highest margin! If a clothes retailers sold just belts and t shirts they wouldn’t get many customers. They have to sell the full range of clothing some of which are higher margin than others and cannot cherry pick
2. You do not have to care about the margin you make as long as it covers the ebay and paypal charges. If its a hobby then it doesn’t matter if you just make 50p on a £20 sale whereas it certainly does matter if its your main business!

Mark Lewis, MD of ebay says that he is trying to “break the grip” large manufacturers have over internet sales.

We are not a large manufacturer, we are a soft toy manufacturer and wholesaler trying to give our retail customers a good product at a fair price. If this means that we have to stop selling our ranges to online retailers who are selling our products at an unrealistic margin then we will do it

for more information please see www.bestyears.co.uk

Will Woolworths Online Unsettle High St Toy shops

Woolworths online has now been launched just 20 weeks after the domain name was bought by Shop Direct which owns Littlewoods among other companies

Given that half the problem in starting an internet shop is getting noticed then it was a smart move to buy up such a high profile brand by  Shop Direct and they have big plans for Woolworths.co.uk

Thay have already said that they want the shop to be profitable within 12 months and that target was given a boost by the fact that over 100,000 people logged on to the site the day the website went live

Woolworths also has thriving twitter and facebook sites with more than 8000 followers from which it gathers feedback on the product offering

The new Woolworths will stock significantly more products than the stores including large items such as paddling pools and swimming pools

So far it looks as if the new Woolworths will be more sophisticated than the old discounting Woolies, and it is targeting Amazon as its major rival rather than high street stores

Its going to be very interesting to see how sales go (especially of the pic’n'mix sweets!) as and when the high st version of Woolworths (Wellworths?) is also launched before Xmas

So far in 2009 high street toy stores have enjoyed a good year without the presence of their biggest competitor and the industry’s largest discounter. Will traditional high st toy shops continue to thrive without the presence of a large discounter on their doorstep? Or will going online just make them harder to compete against?

Best Years are a soft toy wholesaler and we are cautiously optomistic because so far prices seem to be standard but we will wait and see. Either way we won’t be supplying them as we deal only with independent and department stores

see www.bestyears.co.uk

Child Safety Week – do you know your EN71 from your CE?

There has been a lot of information in the press lately about toy safety, with the EU commissioner raising concerns about the influx of sub-standard toys from the Far East

As a manufacturer we care about the quality of our goods and have procedures in place to make sure that they are of the highest standards. So as a retailer what can you do to ensure the products you are selling are safe?

If you are selling soft toys in the UK then you should see the ‘CE’ mark on their labeling, what does this mean?

CE

The CE mark has been described as the toy’s passport. It is there to show that the manufacturer designed and made the toys in line with essential safety requirements of the European directive (EN71). It indicates that the manufacturer or importer of the toy has kept a technical file on the toy to show that it passes all European technical specifications. The CE mark must always be followed by the address of the manufacturer or importer so that if there ever is a problem they can be traced

EN71

The EEC laid down precise specifications of what is required in toys if they are to be sold in Europe and although soft toys are affected by most parts of the EN71 specifications there are 2 main parts which apply

EN71-1 Mechanical & Physical. We call this the pull and choke tests. Firstly any removable part must resist a pull equivalent to a 10kg weight dragging on it. With soft toys this usually applies to eyes. Secondly any removable parts must be able to go easily through a cylinder designed to be the same size as a child’s throat. Obviously this is a different size depending on what age the toy is targeted at. It is this test which the majority of toys seized by the authorities have failed. The specifications also includes seam strength, plastic bag safety and sharp edges

EN71 -2 Flammability. This is where we try and set fire to the toys. If the flame spreads at a rate of more than 30mm per second it fails!

So we would recommend that as a retailer you ask to see test certificates, give the occasional tweak to eyes and other small detachable parts of products you are selling and know your age restrictions

This is meant to be a brief over view of CE and EN71 markings and not a comprehensive guide, but if you need any more details then please do email Liz@bestyears.co.uk and she will be happy to fill in the details or direct you to the relevant department

Alternatively please contact your local Trading Standards office http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/

We can highly recommend them for straight forward advice

New York or London retailing

I have just got back from New York and as a soft toy wholesaler I found it very interesting (it was supposed to be a holiday but since when did a small business owner ever totally switch off!)

Firstly the news that Toys R Us has taken over FAO Swartz was not a total surprise. I was surprised how uninspiring the shop was. Again as a soft toy wholesaler I was unimpressed by the ranges and as a parent of 2 girls I struggled to find gifts. The whole shop felt like a collection of concessions and I hope that a lot of money and thought now goes in to new ranges

In terms of the USA economy there were a lot of empty retail premises in New York, and even on 5th Avenue there were gaps. However the retailers left did not appear to be struggling. They all had Memorial Day Promotions but no one was slashing margins and prices were realistic. Perhaps now that the competition has thinned out there is enough money going around to support good retailers

Finally I was intrigued by the fact that in New York shops exist in blocks. We visited the fashion district where 5 or 6 large retailers, effectively offering exactly the same ranges, exist side by side. As a wholesaler we are always been asked for exclusivity in a geographical area and are happy to offer it but New York runs totally counter to this. Who is right? I don’t know I’m a wholesaler not a business consultant!

see www.bestyears.co.uk for more detail

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!