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.
- They have all chosen to move in to the toy market by offering ranges online rather than in store
- 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!
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