How to Open a Toy Store in 11 Simple Steps
There is still room for well-run independent businesses giving top-notch service in the toy sector despite the intense competition.
Read our comprehensive practical guide on opening and operating your toy shop.
Everyone has fond memories of playing with toys as a youngster. Toys are loved by both children and adults, making toy retailing a lucrative and prospective global industry.
There is still room for well-run independent businesses giving top-notch service in the toy sector despite the intense competition.
Here are 11 Steps to Start a Toy Store
Think carefully about the following considerations if you want to open a profitable toy shop on your own:
1. Plan of Business
Describe your plans for your firm in great detail. To maintain your plan operating as intended, this is crucial. Funding, as well as loans and insurance, also require summarizing.
If possible, locate your business in a favorable area close to amusement parks and movie theaters. Parents of smaller kids make excellent customers for toy stores. Last but not least, don’t forget to get the certificates, licenses, and permits you’ll need for your retail firm.
2. Demand estimation
If you don’t want to make the majority of your money from online sales, you’ll need to determine whether there is enough local demand for your toy store. Make a list of all the stores that are currently selling toys in your neighborhood and do a competitive analysis of the market.
Remember to add not only other independent toy specialists but also big box stores like Smyths and The Entertainer, catalog stores like Argos, market stalls, supermarkets, and newsstands that sell toys.
Ascertain the types of toys that your rivals are offering and look for a market gap that your store may fill by offering such products. Along with your regional rivals, you’ll have fierce competition from internet and mail-order merchants.
Fewer towns and villages with fewer major businesses and specialty chains may have less harsh competition, but the customer base will undoubtedly be smaller than in a big city.
The characteristics of your neighborhood may to some extent affect the types of toys that your clients purchase. If the area is wealthy and expensive, high-quality goods may sell well;
if it is less prosperous, you could do better to focus on less expensive toys. Research has found that the least wealthy parents frequently purchase some of the most expensive toys for their kids, making it difficult to evaluate this.
Think about how many homes your store needs to draw to generate the necessary amount of revenue. Do a lot of the homes in your neighborhood have kids? Are there any nearby schools? Remember that it can be harder for you to draw enough clients if the majority of individuals in your neighborhood are retirees.
3. Store location
In general, having as much passing traffic as possible is vital for a retail establishment like a toy store. If you intend to open a business in your town or city, you should ideally try to position it as close to the center as you can.
If the expense of doing this is too high, you might want to explore establishing up shop in a suburban retail center. These have the advantage of having a sizable number of daily clients as well as lower rent expenses. As an alternative, renting a market stall can be a more affordable method to get a nice spot.
Parking spots nearby or in front of the shop will come in handy, particularly if you want to sell any large toys. You don’t want to have to deal with a lot of theft, break-ins, or theft, so look into the area crime rates as well.
4. Suppliers
For your toy shop, frequent supplies are required. You could require a warehouse where you can keep your stuff. You can choose vendors who can deliver goods straight to customers who have placed orders in an online store. Always maintain many suppliers because the demand in this sector may exceed expectations.
Additionally, be sure to select a reputable supplier that offers high-quality goods at competitive pricing. The items could be anything from dolls to drones to games, toys, playsets, and puzzles.
5. Why should shoppers pick your store?
You must ensure that a sufficient number of clients will pick your store over competing businesses. Look at the contest to see:
Your market research may have revealed a gap in the market that your shop can fill, but even if you are unable to do so, specializing in a particular category of the toy may be the best way to convince customers to choose your store — particularly if you carry products that aren’t typically found in the larger retailers.
This kind of specialization will set your store apart from the competition and should increase your customer base.
6. Marketing Plan
Everyone is motivated by pastime items. While baby boomers like traditional interactive toys, millennials are more drawn to non-digital varieties. After you have identified all of the aforementioned variables, marketing to the various age groups is left to increase sales.
There are many different marketing tactics, including social media platforms, newsletters with pop-up events, email and SMS marketing, and more.
Other strategies for building your store’s reputation include employing SEO to optimize your website, print advertising (such as flyers, magazines, posters, and banners), local television advertising, and word-of-mouth marketing.
7. Discover what people desire
Small, independent toy stores that are physically located on the premises struggle to compete with large national chains, variety shops, supermarkets, mail-order companies, and online sellers. Therefore, you must confirm that the toys you plan to stock have a market.
You could conduct some polls among residents in your neighborhood to learn:
Look at current developments as well as legal and tax matters:
8. Sources of potential sales
There are numerous ways you can market the goods that are offered in the shop. Retailers, distributors, and salespeople may all be present in online stores. Other viable sales channels include participating in local directories, attending exhibitions and fairs, direct marketing, loyalty programs with flash deals, and so on.
Consider opening a virtual “store” of your own.
Your company will have a strong online presence if you have a virtual storefront where you can showcase all of your products in one location.
9. Select the goods to sell
The kind of toys you sell will depend on the kind of store you plan to operate. With up to 100,000 product lines available, there is a huge amount of choice, and you will certainly spend a lot of time looking for new lines to stock, for example by routinely going to trade shows like the Independent Toy and Gift Show.
Having things in your store that are challenging to get elsewhere may help you draw clients. You can spend less time looking for the stock by becoming a member of a buying group because you’ll have access to the groups.
You can decide to sell a variety of modest pocket-money priced things and keep up with the most recent toy trends and styles rather than specialize in a specific kind of toy. Toy chains like Smyths and other retailers like Argos will be your direct competitors if you try to carry a wide variety of toys to satisfy everyone’s needs.
It will be very challenging to compete on pricing because they buy in bulk. By specializing in some way, you can avoid directly competing with them, especially if they decide to provide discounts, as grocery chains occasionally do when they reduce the price of all of their toys in the run-up to Christmas.
10. Holidays and toy “crazes”
Christmas season is the busiest time for toy stores, and it’s feasible that November and December will account for more than half of your total sales. Make sure you have adequate inventory on hand to meet demand at this time of year. Planning is essential since you will need to place an advance stock order.
Both the school summer break and January, when kids spend money they received for Christmas, are busy times for toy stores. Sales may rise if it’s bad outside in the summer since kids will be compelled to remain indoors more.
On the other hand, when the weather is nice, sales of outdoor items like paddling pools and buckets and spades may rise. If you live in a tourism region, the summer may be your busiest season of the year.
Before the new school year begins in late summer, school supplies like backpacks, pencil cases, and stationery sell out quickly. October has a brief sale season for Halloween costumes, masks, and fireworks.
Seasonal sales are frequent and usually take place in January. You might choose to ignore sluggish lines at any time of the year, though.
The toy market has become more and more popular as fads for particular toys generate enormous but transitory demand. An excellent example is the popularity of toys associated with a specific movie; there is an immediate demand, which often declines as soon as the movie is no longer in style.
Ordering goods early can allow you to take advantage of the demand for these items, even though it can be impossible to forecast which toys will sell well or what the next children’s trend will be Should it do so It could be challenging to meet the demand for toys that so quickly gain popularity.
However, ordering too much in advance of such a rush is dangerous because a product could become unpopular rapidly and leave you with an excess of unwanted stock.
11. Advertising for your Company
The proper picture
Your store must present the ideal picture to customers. Everything about your store should be planned to best draw in new clients and motivate current ones to frequent your business again and again. To set your store apart from the competition, strive to provide a high-quality, welcoming, and knowledgeable service.
If you have enough space, setting up a play area where kids can test out goods could assist to promote sales and foster a positive mood while diverting attention away from the items that are on display!
Many buyers do not need specialized assistance, and the majority of toys require little to no after-sales support (except perhaps for the suitability of particular toys for very young children). However, a positive reputation for your shop depends on offering clients a helpful service.
For Example, If you want to Buy Toys Online, then ToysFerry.com is a very reputable company offering heavy discounts and the best quality products.
You must attempt to ensure that:
You can also think about signing up with the Toy Retailers Association. Members consent to follow a Code of Practice, which emphasizes toy safety heavily.
According to data conducted by the Association, toy safety is the main factor influencing consumer toy purchases. Your shop can display the “Approved Lion Mark Retailer” symbol to show customers that you care about toy safety if you join.
Conclusion
Your toy store can succeed in this attractive and lucrative industry with appropriate planning and promotion. We hope that the information provided here will assist you in determining how to open a toy business.
Author Bio:
Sophia Williams is a qualified content writer with experience in writing on a variety of subjects. He has written a lot of Content on Kid’s Games, Toys for Kids, and many other topics for Toys Ferry.
