Back in 2017, Toys “R” Us declared bankruptcy and closed its doors. One of the mega retail stores of the bygone era, they weren’t able to keep up. Their stores lacked innovation and their website game was poor. In today’s technology-driven culture, having a great website is key. You need to offer convenience to keep up with the Amazon’s of the world. Walmart has done a good job of doing that, but many others haven’t. And they’ve all died painful deaths.
Now, Target is looking to help revitalize the brand. The timing couldn’t be more perfect as we get nearer to the busy holiday shopping season. They’ve partnered with Toys “R” Us, the company that was already looking to make a comeback. They completely rebuilt their brand-new website and relaunched it on Tuesday.
Now you can order toys on the Toys “R” Us website and have them delivered to any Target store for you to pick them up. As part of their new strategy, the toy company isn’t going to have massive warehouses anymore. They will focus on their website while testing much smaller stores. While they unroll this new strategy, being able to pick up toys at Target will be helpful.
“By applying our capabilities in a new way with Toys “R” Us, we can serve even more toy shoppers, drive new growth, and build on our toy leadership,” Target executive Nikhil Nayar said in a statement. The new parent company for the brand is Tru Kids. They bought the rights to the Toys “R” Us name after the bankruptcy. They’ve since been looking at ways to bring the dead franchise back to life.
Toys “R” Us is Back in Time for the Holidays
Rather than going back to the old model of filling up a massive warehouse, the relaunch is going to be quieter. They’ve already made a deal to partner with Kroger during the holiday season. Kroger stores will have a section called “Geoffrey’s Toy Box” to help market toys and other gifts for the holidays. Geoffrey is the name of the famous giraffe mascot.
“Our US strategy is to bring back the Toys “R” Us brand in a modern way,” Richard Barry, the CEO of Tru Kids, said in a statement. The strategy is going to be slow and steady. The holiday season is always crazy busy, so smaller partnerships with Target and Kroger will do for now. They hope to have at least 10 new stores ready by the 2020 holiday season.
Make no mistake about it, there was a massive void left behind when Toys “R” Us shut down. Target has been facing major competition from the likes of Walmart and Amazon, who are always fighting for the top spot. Target hopes that partnering with Toys “R” Us will allow them to grab some of the profits.
