Company Profile
Lucy Locket
Tearing up the rule book
Online retail is in the spotlight for several reasons at the moment. With the UK under lockdown conditions, along with many other countries, people are turning to the online channel for products that might have ordinarily been purchased in person. While this is hugely useful and convenient for many, questions are being raised about the necessity of some products as well as the safety of workers. Toy World spoke to Paul Edwick, CEO of the specialist online children’s retailer Lucy Locket, to gauge his thoughts on the current situation.
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tarting out in 1994 as a wholesaler, Paul’s company then began designing its own costumes, pretend-play accessories, stationery, jewellery boxes and other products a few years later. For the last five years the company has been purely B2C online, retailing its own products under the trademarked brand names Lucy Locket and Wobbly Jelly. Currently working alongside Paul at the Lincolnbased family business are his wife Sarah (product design) and their daughters Sally (logistics and consumer safety) and Lucy (marketing); everything else is outsourced. Amazon is Lucy Locket’s largest route to market, with listings in eight countries as of the end of April. The company also sells directly through its website, www. lucylocket.com, and says it is making big investments in mobile technology to keep things up to date. Paul is also developing a streamlined product management system that will complement Lucy Locket’s accounting needs. “The key objectives will be to build efficiency in the ordering cycle with factories through to delivery to the end consumer at as low a logistics costs as we can manage, as well as managing listings and orders in many different countries,” he explains. “Once it has been fully road tested by us, we intend launching this as a SAAS product.” Things are changing day by day, notes Paul, when asked how the Covid-19 crisis is affecting him. Similar issues arise – panic buying at supermarkets, difficulties accessing basic healthcare and obtaining medicines. But as a successful online retailer, Paul is also having to balance the needs of his customers, many of whom will have young children, with the needs of his business. While the company was still taking orders as of the final week of March, the looming threat of an extension to the lockdown, and the possibility of stricter enforcement, means Paul is poised to change his strategy. “We’re looking at orders that are comparable to Christmas volumes, while managing with only skeleton staffing levels to ensure our workers are as safe as possible,” Paul explains. “For now, we have to take the orders; I’ve seen many a website recently
with pop-ups telling the customer that the company is closed for orders or fighting a major backlog. We aren’t in that position, and we’re very much aiming to fulfil all orders that come in, but this approach carries with it the inherent risk that, one afternoon, we’ll have to write an email explaining that the warehouse has been closed for worker safety, or overwhelmed by the number of orders, and that while we took the order
in good faith it’s going to take longer to process. That said, in a little over a week I think many people have become more tolerant of a level and speed of service they would usually be very intolerant of.” When we spoke to Paul, the UK was halfway through its second week of lockdown. Only those stores deemed essential remain open, and online retail has suddenly become the only way many people can get hold of items they urgently need. One topic which has cropped up as a result is what constitutes essential goods and services, and what we can all make do without - as demonstrated by Mike Ashley's insistence that Sports Direct is an essential retailer due to the fact it "helps keep the nation fit". (Mike has since apologised and closed his shops). But it's
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an interesting consideration. For a nation of parents suddenly expected to home-school their children for weeks (or months), often while trying to balance their own jobs at the same time, the fact toys and games have remained obtainable online will have provided a lifeline. But if you’re not a parent, and you aren’t expected to teach children in your home, these products probably aren’t essential – and this is where the debate continues, especially as many online retailers will have staff in their employ which are expected to continue working during the Covid-19 outbreak. "I would class toys and games as essential, but I'm sure there are plenty of others who wouldn’t,” says Paul. “We have a lot of parents out there trying their level best to home educate their kids from a standing start, and I tip my hat to each and every one of them. I have a friend with six-month-old twins and two primary-age children who’s always been very careful with what they’re bought; the kids aren’t over-indulged in any sense. But with the whole family stuck at home for some time, the older kids now have a tablet each to help them engage with schoolwork. This is a good example of the reasons behind the initial splurge many retailers will have seen in mid-March; consumers seemed to be kitting up with the stuff they need to get through this. The most significant uplift for us has been our stationery items, with our writing sets selling out shortly after the start of the lock-down – two to three months earlier than expected. Jewellery boxes and tea sets are also performing better than they did last year, but with a steadier level of volume increase. I think this rush of orders will settle down, but the fundamental issue during the lockdown will remain keeping your kids happy. It looks likely that stricter restrictions on movement and activities will be put in place and UK houses are quite small many will have four or more people in them round the clock. If we can’t keep the kids happy, we’re going to have an awful lot of people climbing the walls." The lockdowns are also hitting pockets hard. With most physical stores and restaurants shut, and their usual visitors only allowed out for hospital appointments and food shopping, some retailers have been cancelling stock orders, refusing to pay