I have had an attachment to Australia since the early 2000’s when we sold Mighty Beanz and then met folks from several toy companies down under over the years namely through distributors. Shopkins was one of our largest selling toys in 2015-16 and even met up randomly with a key Moosie on a flight to New York Toy Fair (any guesses?) that year. Fast forward to today and we still count on you for innovation, newness and quality designs in toys and games. Recently we have worked with Connetix and My Creative Box.
There are many consistencies in toys around the world of which we are all facing challenges today—how to encourage and promote PLAY even more. Play for kids, adults and seniors as well. It’s a prescription for good health that costs very little when looked at long term. But, with the advent of screens (video gaming and social media) our industry is challenged to go up against these massive trends. But, as we see here in the states, there is beginning to be a backlash as mental anxiety and reported feelings of sadness and hopelessness in teens have hit highs.
This is a key reason we at Learning Express have supported two initiatives which we feel are imperative to stay alive in the retail toy business.
Understand the current state of children’s mental health and be knowledgeable in recommending and guiding parents to the right products to help strengthen a child’s skills and resiliency (MESH) and secondly, we believe that a thorough understanding of PLAY involves studying the history and evolution of play over the years. Hence, we mandate Certified Play Expertise training for our key stakeholders. It has made them stronger sales agents and comfortable in relating to today’s kids.
Toys are a forward-looking business and, in many ways, risky. But after 29 years we believe we have a formula that works but also must keep changing in the future. Let me simply lay out both.
- Current Strategy is threefold T, P, W; (this is how I think about our business every morning)
- Best Team (motivated, educated, incentivized and compensated)
- Best products (search the world to curate the best of best)
- WOW stores (turning the ordinary into the extraordinary)
- I tell our team, you do these three things well, and sales will follow.
In addition, and if you follow me on LinkedIn or other trade press, you know I’m calling for a US toy retail reboot! We MUST change as we face the power of Amazon and Walmart online.
Yes, we can do all the experiential things in store but there must be more. A retail toy vision for what can come next as well as actions to get us there. Here are four ideas we are prepared to invest in 2025—our future.
- Implement a value section ($15 & under), full of surprises, each week.
- Add customization options to ongoing vendor partners. We started this in 2024 – examples include the Dope Slime Sundae Station where kids make their own slime. Other considerations are a patch bar – we supply bags, hats and containers and kids pick their custom patches that we affix via heat or glue. Many other ideas are swirling, as they offer even more reason to visit us and take the item home on the same day – no waiting on Amazon for delivery.
- Offer more intimate events such as readings, Rain Forest education sessions to outside groups, informational activities like “how to professionally gift wrap”, etc. I have been following the resurgence of Barnes & Noble bookstores by CEO, James Daunt, and his change in philosophy to let the local stores select their own inventory. Customization is key!
- Test and build the infrastructure to begin social selling. We need to have the platform, inventory quality, people and streaming capabilities to do this correctly, reaching our customers in their homes during slower times at the store.
My forecast for the US indie retail toy sector in 2025 is mid-single digit growth. How about you, what are you thinking, feeling and how can you add to the conversation to keep the local magic alive in toy shops around the globe. Till next time.
Richard Derr (Toy Man Rick)
“20 years at A C Nielsen/ D&B and 29 years running my own retail business. We have a vision “to be the pharmacy of toys in Lake Zurich “IL USA implemented by a simple strategy of T, P, W. Best teams, best curated products, in a WOW environment. Visit us sometime to feel the magic. The Toy Man.”
This article originally appeared in Edition 14 of The Toy Universe Magazine
