‘We want to be seen as a solid partner for licensors,’ says retailer’s Geoff Sheffield.
Last year, Oxford Street welcomed a new face in toy retail. Indeed, The Toy Store came bounding into the west end of London like an excited child at Christmas, such was its enthusiasm to bring its own particular brand of toy retailing to the UK market.
Created in 2004, the first Toy Store opened in Muscat, Oman and since then it has built a healthy number of outlets across the Middle East. Oxford Street was its first foray into the UK and it was well aware that, as a newcomer to the market, it would have a lot of work to do.
Geoff Sheffield, director of procurement and licensing at RM Group (the parent company of The Toy Store), explains: “I think we always went into this project with a healthy degree of respect for the arena we were entering. Although the footfall is there, we have to work hard on telling people we exist and making sure their experience in the store is one they will remember for the right reasons and tell their social circle about.”
There are currently 100 people employed in the UK team and the store has received a huge amount of interest since it opened its doors. For the licensing industry in particular, the store layout is a huge bonus.
“The principle was that the consumer should enter zones developed around the most relevant characters and licences, different perhaps to the traditional zoning of categories,” says Geoff.
“We spent a lot of time working with the brand principals on developing how that experience should look and which characters were key in their future plans.
“Striking the balance between experience and commerciality was the next consideration and making sure we could house a cross variety of merchandise to enhance the area. A lot of time was spent trying to see the store through the eyes of the child and working out where those emotional touch points needed to be. Whether that was digital interaction/personalisation, a life-size sculpt or a well dressed fixture, we wanted there to be plenty of ‘wow’ moments.”
New fixtures set at a height that would give a child a clearer panoramic view of the store were also created, while partners have also been very supportive in terms of helping to bring the store to life.
As well as The Toy Store’s own Mr Fun and Blue and Red stormtrooper characters, there have been visits from Scooby-Doo, the Playmobil mascot, Cody the VTech mascot, Peppa Pig, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Sheamus from WWE.
In addition, Warner Bros. provided some original Batman movie props to give the store that extra edge.
In terms of best performers, the preschool category is strong, with Thomas, Peppa Pig and Mr Men all indexing well. Minions and Star Wars are also, unsurprisingly, healthy sellers – the store’s Star Wars Shepperton Design Studio offering has provided it with a point of difference for the real Star Wars fan, too.
On top of this, Marvel, Disney Princess, plus franchises from Hasbro and Mattel are all consistent performers.
For Geoff and the team, the aim now is to further build on The Toy Store’s relationship with the UK licensing community.
“We firmly believe in this concept and will now work with many of the same partners to replicate as best we can some of the features here in the Middle East,” Geoff continues.
“The benefits are that they can really showcase their portfolio and if the investment in-store is right and refreshed regularly, they have a permanent showcase for their licences – this will enable all their licensee partners to showcase their product in a surrounding which cries out to the consumer.”
Following a “positive, encouraging and supportive” reception to The Toy Store concept at Brand Licensing Europe last year, Geoff would now like the industry as a whole to engage with the company going forward.
“We would like The Toy Store to be seen as a solid partner for licensors to make an investment with us to bring their characters alive,” he says. “We are offering a longer term solution for them to showcase the power of their brands versus a short-term pop up or a mall activation. I would hope that by the end of 2016, we are working on unique retail activations and product developed to support them.”
With the beauty of the licensing industry being that there is always innovation and new properties to play with, The Toy Store’s residence on Oxford Street is likely to be a successful one – and we wouldn’t be surprised to see its UK footprint grow even further.
This feature originally appeared in the Spring 2016 edition of The Licensing Source Book. Click here to read the full publication.
