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On making a splash Too many toy shops look more or less the same, but how do you go about creating difference? John Ryan puts some ideas forward
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ame old same old. It’s a hackneyed phrase, but it’s hackneyed because there is more than a grain of truth about it and in few places is this more evident than on our high streets. When it comes to shopping, the UK has long been accused of being “Clone Britain” owing to the propensity of Big Retail PLC to make everything the same, everywhere. In part this is a response to economies of scale and it also has to do with the notion that brand loyalty has a bit to do with familiarity. Whatever the case, it does mean boring and whether it’s Cardiff, Croydon or Kilmarnock (OK, it doesn’t begin with ‘C’, but some alliterative slack please), there is a sense that things could be better. This is where the independent retailer actually has a chance to be a high street force for good and to offer an alternative to the run of the mill. The thing is, how to go about it? Toy shops tend to be simple things, but that simplicity is deceptive. Starting therefore with the exterior, what matters? The answer is almost everything. The name could be as simple as ‘The Toy Shop’, but it has to be something that local people can recognise and build a degree of loyalty towards. Then there’s the fascia itself. Any colour works, but it has to be done professionally and be, to an extent, sympathetic with the surroundings. The other point is, don’t be tempted to change the colour after a couple of years. The way a store looks from the outside is every bit as important in gaining recognition as the name above the door. Choose a colour therefore and stick with it. The one variable on a storefront is, of course, the windows. And it’s not enough to choose a few toys that have just arrived and then to stick them behind the glass. On Valentines Day, Hamleys ran a promotion. No, not hearts and chocolates, but Peppa Pig, who was on hand to open the store on the same day as the film Peppa Pig The Golden Boots was released in cinemas. Bear in mind that there are thousands of toys and games that the Regent Street behemoth could choose from when it comes to getting shoppers through the doors. Every time it makes a decision about events or what goes in the window therefore, it has exercised editorial control. This is the task in hand. It is not enough to put ‘stuff’ in the window. Your job is to create interest and this could mean anything from a single product, endlessly
repeated, á la Andy Warhol, to a themed presentation. The options are legion, but there has to be an obvious logic and entertainment value about what has been done, particularly as you are in the business of selling toys. And consider this. How many times have you seen toy shop windows that look both lacklustre and as if everything has been thrown at the problem of creating a display without any real understanding of what it is that is trying to be achieved? Probably a fair few and it really doesn’t have to be this way. Visual merchandising curation, editing, call it what you will, is nearly as important as buying the right stock in the first place. This is your shout and it doesn’t matter how good what lies within might be, if you fail at this first hurdle, you fail. Assuming, however, that you do manage to convert passers-by into potential shoppers of your store, what will they find when the walk through the door? In an ideal world, the first thing that they’d probably encounter would be the promise of the window made flesh – or put another way, it’s no good showing off if you don’t deliver from the moment the shopper crosses the threshold. Practically however this means more than just stacking the toys up and saying ‘come buy’. As with windows, there is rather more to in-store visual merchandising than a pile of merchandise. Creating an appropriate temporary environment that walks the window walk is essential if you’re going to carry the shopper that extra yard to the cash desk. Once again, this can mean almost anything, but what it does involve is significant editing to make an essential product splash. It also probably means considering the backdrop that you provide to do this. Most toy manufacturers are ready, willing and able to provide point of sale material that will do the job, but the problem with this may be that you look like anywhere else. For the most part, the POS from the big brands will suffice. But as a retailer looking to separate yourself from the herd, you need to choose something that will make a difference and it may be a case of doing it yourself. This is what makes the difference and sorts a good toys hop from a workaday emporium. So what does all of this add up to? Be selective. Make your decision and run with it and don’t try to be all things to all shoppers – this will never work. Just as importantly, plough your own furrow. A lot or retailers spend a lot of time looking at what the competition’s doing and then trying to imitate. This is fine, but being unafraid of others is the mark of the best. Easy really… or maybe not, but all of this needs to be thought about, all of the time.
John Ryan is Stores Editor at Retail Week. He has worked for the magazine for more than a decade covering store design, visual merchandising and what makes things sell in-store. In a previous life he was a buyer.
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