The study also found that Amazon Prime members disproportionately bought toys on the retail platform compared to non-members. Nearly three-fourths (73.5%) of toy shoppers with Prime memberships bought toys on Amazon in the past year while 23.8% of non-members did. Toys ‘R’ Us buyers were almost evenly split between Prime members (34.2%) and non-members (36.0%). These non-Prime Toys ‘R’ Us buyers are likely to turn to Walmart, Target or even dollar or department stores.
Toys 'R' Us revenue & sales data, and much more
While Toys ‘R’ Us ecommerce revenues have risen in each of the past five years, overall revenues have declined steadily. The toy retailer actually has higher ecommerce penetration (13.0%) than either Target (5.5%) or Walmart (3.2%), according to the eMarketer Retail Company Database.
Similar to Best Buy, Toys ‘R’ Us was one of the last remaining specialty big box stores in its product category. While Best Buy is attempting to stay relevant by using its stores as experiential showcases for brands like Dyson and connected devices in partnership with Vivint, a smart home service provider, Toys ‘R’ Us’ problems' stemmed less from changing consumer behavior and the rise of online shopping but from billions of dollars of debt.
eMarketer principal retail analyst Andrew Lipsman cautioned against writing off all big box specialty retail as a thing of the past. “It can definitely work,” he said. “Best Buy has been able to succeed by creating more of a showrooming environment, and you can see how a toy retailer could potentially provide a great experience, but Toys ‘R’ Us wasn’t afforded the opportunity to make the necessary investments.”