24 INDIE FORUM
Toy masters: Independent retail roundtable
While people were making and taking orders at this year’s Toymaster show, in a secret room, above the event, ToyNews gathered a selection of toy retailers for a no holds barred chat about their businesses…
Jason Messenger, Messenger Enterprises In his seven years as a toy retailer, Jason has opened seven shops. He used to be strictly bricks and mortar, but now occasionally dabbles in eBay and Amazon trade.
ToyNews: How has the past year been for you? David: The last 12 months have been pretty good. We’ve expanded quite rapidly. Most of our trade is on the internet though, through eBay and Amazon. That’s the direction the market is moving to – away from the High Street and more online. It’s about having the right thing, at the right time, at the right price.
Helen: It’s customer service that is bringing people in – they want people who know about the products. The online side is okay, but because of the likes of Amazon and eBay, we’re out of the market before we’ve started.
Jason: I agree. It’s the customer service which makes us stand out from anybody else. Amazon and eBay has destroyed the percentage of trade
JULY 2012
Ian Edmunds, Toymaster Toymaster’s marketing and operations director has been a member of the toy trade for 31 years, and Toymaster itself for 13 years.
because everybody wants something for cheaper now. However, I guess it is something we can take advantage of when something is selling for more online. For example, last Christmas
Helen Gourlay, The Hub Direct The only non-Toymaster member on the panel, Helen runs an independent toy shop in Dumblane, Central Scotland. She’s a firm believer in customer service and has forthright views on pricing.
Jason: I put it on Amazon – when you’re selling it there you’re not a face, you’re not really a person. If I put that on the shelf at £99 or £75, we would get customer complaints.
The High Street is changing. Landlords are living in the dark ages. If the rents
change, you’ll get the indies coming
back and the High Street will be reborn. Ian Edmunds, Operations director, Toymaster
we had the Bat Cave from Mattel sat on shelves for £59.99. It wasn’t selling, until one guy came in and said: “I can’t believe you’ve got that, its selling for £100 on eBay. Have you got any more?” Luckily I was there to tell him no, knowing we had six left.
Helen: So did you raise the price in store, or did you put it on Amazon?
Helen: I find a lot of people will come in and quote online prices at me. Someone came in saying that a particular Skylanders set was £14.99 on Amazon and I looked at him and said: “Yeah, but they’ve not got any.”
What’s your opinion on Skylanders? David: I’ve sold about 4,000 since Christmas. It’s big business.
David Middleton, Midco Toys David started his first toy shop straight out of university and now owns two stores, in Burton-on-Trent and Derby. He has been a member of the industry for ten years.
Jason: The problem for us is the margin. Unfortunately from what I’ve seen you’re only achieving around a ten per cent margin on these products.
David: You’ve got to look at what the market is doing – Amazon is setting the price of Skylanders at the moment. If you’ve got six Skylanders and two of them are £20 on Amazon, we do it for that price and nobody moans.
Helen: Well I’m a parent, and one of the things that bugs me is this idea that because your kid absolutely loves a product, you’ll go out and spend an absolute fortune on it. We’re selling the triple packs and the adventure packs for £19.99, and the single packs for £7.99.
Ian: It’s very difficult, it’s down to individual businesses.
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