Amazon to start new Christmas tradition with its own toy catalog
Source: Toys "R" Us
Toys “R” Us is gone and there’s a market void to be filled. Bring on the Amazon.com toy catalog.
Bloomberg reports that the e-tailing giant is looking to make a big move for the Christmas selling season with the publication of a catalog that will be mailed to millions of homes across the U.S. and distributed by hand at the company’s Whole Foods stores.
The Toys “R” Us “Big Book” once heralded the coming Christmas holiday season when it arrived every year in October. Rivals Target and Walmart also produce catalogs that many children like to hold onto to make their Christmas wish lists.
With Toys “R” Us being history, plenty of retailers are looking to grab a share of the toy giant's sales revenue, which totaled $6.5 billion in U.S. last year. Party City announced last week that it planned to open 50 Toy City temporary stores in early September alongside its Halloween City pop-ups located across the country. Party City is also expanding its selection of toys online.
“The creation of a Toy City concept to complement our temporary seasonal retail strategy is a logical extension of our brand; one that will allow us to leverage our existing pop-up store capabilities and capitalize on the category whitespace that has recently been created,” said Party City CEO James Harrison.
Amazon will not be the first e-tailer to utilize a print catalog to raise its profile and drive sales. Last year, Wayfair produced a 92-page catalog that featured 775 items unique to the site, including bedroom furniture, custom upholstery, lighting, rugs, lighting, sofas and more. The e-tailer said at the time that product selection for the catalog was based on “quantitative and algorithm-based insights” from its own proprietary tech used to assess its advertising effectiveness and with data from media brand partners, including HGTV, This Old House and others.