5 things brands can do RIGHT NOW in the wake of Toys ‘R’ Us closing

With Toys ’R’ Us closing all of its US and UK stores, including locations under the Babies ’R’ Us banner, brands targeting parents of children ages 0-10 are scrambling. While it’s true a few of the largest baby and kid brands drive much of their sales from other retailers, like Target and Walmart, that doesn’t mean the loss of Toys ‘R’ Us is any less of a big deal. It’ll hurt. All baby and kid brands are losing a major revenue stream. That said, in our firm’s history in working with some of the world’s largest baby and kid brands, there are a few things we’ve seen help become retailer-proof (or at least minimize the impact of any single customer disaster).

Don’t panic. You don’t have to be banished to the land of misfit toys. Here are five recommendations brands should consider immediately to minimize the fallout of losing a major retailer. These ideas may also limit future vulnerabilities as physical retailers continue to be disrupted by Amazon and other new business models.

1. Take the Power Back

Brands need to double-down on building, growing, and modernizing their CRM program with a focus on email and direct-to-consumer models, not social. Owning your consumer’s contact info, digital identity, and permission to communicate with them directly is enormously valuable to drive actual sales. Email address is the key to unlocking those identities. Social and paid media expand reach, but for most brands, your social influence doesn’t have the scale needed to counteract the Toys ‘R’ Us fallout. Most consumers are not going to follow your brands on social media, and it wouldn’t do you much good, anyway. To deliver true measurable ROI and drive consumers to buy, buy again, and become loyal, taking the power back from the retailers through permission-based 1:1 communication with your potential consumers in meaningful ways. Gained influence and performance delivered by personalized, dynamic 1:1 email vs. broad social — there’s no comparison.

2. Playground Pop-Ups

Brands could rent their own retail space for a short time period in major markets in the form of experiential pop-ups. Bring your portfolio of products, test new products, and partner with other non-competitive brands. While previously brands could do this at a smaller scale, now they need to consider larger, efficient, recurring productions. Toys ‘R’ Us and Babies ’R’ Us enabled kids and parents to physically interact with many of the products on the market. It was the last kid-focused big box store holding most of the product lines that consumers will want/need to buy as their children grow up. It was genuinely fun. Target and Walmart don’t deliver the same experience, and the limited inventory they do carry includes many of the same products.

3. Make Physical Shopping Fun Again

Similar to the previous point, baby and toy shopping at retailers is boring. With so much volume being purchased online, the products you do keep at the existing physical retailers better be engaging, interactive, and fun. Leave consumers with a memorable impression so when they shop online, your brand is associated with fond memories.

4. Strengthen eCommerce Relationships and Performance

If you weren’t doing this before, now it’s critical to boost your investment and relationships with retailers and their eCommerce sites. Optimize your SEO, PLAs, sponsored items, ratings, and reviews, and utilize methods to raise your products to the top of the retailer’s page. These are just a few tactics that will increase exposure and sales performance. Call your Amazon rep.

5. Find Alternative Channels to Market

There are industries and companies that have reach and influence with target consumers left in the lurch. Brands should build partnerships with companies in the Hospitality, Travel & Tourism, and Child Care industries, just to name a few, where brands’ products could get into the hands of parents and kids to experience and enjoy while delivering added value to the partners. We work with many brands in the baby and kid space, and partnerships for alternative exposure and distribution deliver consistent top quartile ROI.

Whenever there are major disruptions in the supply chain, brands are forced to consider new ways to mitigate risk. In this case, the disruption downstream with retailers is going to continue, so it’s time for brands to take the power back and control their own destiny.

Contact us to help you build stronger CRM programs that drive sales, scale measurable consumer relationships and take control of your brand’s destiny.

Alex Perroy is the Director of Client Development at Response Media, an Atlanta-based digital/direct firm which specializes in helping baby and young family brands grow through integrated shopper, digital, email, and mobile innovation. From toys to diapers to infant nutrition, Response Media has helped the world’s largest brands in the space drive consistent growth through successful consumer relationships at scale.