Inventory / Ordering |
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| 2012 |  18 Retailing Tips: Dealing with Toy & Game Trends
Keeping up with toy and game trends is essential to many specialty retailers, but knowing when to bring a toy in - or ditch it - can be difficult... 8/1/2012 |
|  Get Ready For the Holidays - Now!
At Toy Fair, manufacturers showcase their latest, hottest products, many of which won't be released till Fall, just in time for the holidays. But when do retailers really start ordering?... 3/1/2012 | | |
| 2011 |  16 Tips to Reduce Theft in Your Store
Several retailers recently told TDmonthly that theft is a problem at their stores. Here are some tips on how to minimize the problem... 11/1/2011 |
|  How to Deal With Studs and Duds
Whether you've picked a stud or a dud, hit toys and flops can each cause problems.... 5/1/2011 | |  Make Inventory Work for You
By its very nature, inventory restricts cash flow.... 1/1/2011 | | |
| 2010 |  Design a Buying Space, Part III: Analysis
When analyzing your sales per square foot, you can try comparing it to equivalent stores to evaluate your success. Jonathan Brandow, principal of BizMiner, an industry reporting agency, recommends requesting 10K reports from the Securities Exchange Commission on publicly traded toy stores.... 10/1/2010 |
|  Retailing Tips: Rapid Turnover for Quick Profits
Quick turnover and tight inventory control help you stay afloat in a bleak economic climate... 9/1/2010 | |  How to Start a Toy Store, Part II: The Right Toys
If you're opening a toy store, you probably love toys, and so you might assume that choosing the right ones for your store would be easy... 9/1/2010 | |  Retailing Tips: Buying for the Holidays
With the economy still a giant question mark, toy retailers head into the Christmas buying season unsure of how much inventory they will need.... 7/1/2010 | |  Retailing Tips: How to Tackle Toy Fair
If you’ve been in the toy industry long enough — or in any field that banks on multi-day market extravaganzas — you know the No. 1 rule for attending Toy Fair is to … yes, wear comfortable shoes!... 1/1/2010 | | |
| 2009 |  Tips for Buying “Green” This Christmas
Wanting the perfect “green” gift to put under the tree? If you’re concerned with the environmental impact of manufacturing and the materials used in your kids’ playthings... 12/1/2009 |
|  Retailing Tips: Ordering What Customers Want
All retailers are faced with an inventory dilemma. Spend a lot of money now to have fully stocked shelves and a great product selection, with no guarantee that customers are going to want what was purchased, or go with products known to sell and take customer requests, possibly driving away shoppers... 6/1/2009 | |  Retailing Tips: How to Revive Your Inventory
Nothing is worse than seeing a returning customer browse your shelves and look bored.... 3/1/2009 | |  Retailing Tips: Stock That Won’t Move
Ideally, your store has the perfect balance of merchandise that flows in and out the door at just the right time according to customers’ wishes.... 1/1/2009 | |  Retailing Tips: Allocating Post-Holiday Cash
In my retail store, there were several holiday seasons where sales exceeded our expectations. If you don’t have a plan for this situation ahead of time, you can find yourself spending wildly and blindly — to the detriment of your business.... 1/1/2009 | | |
| 2008 |  Turning Electronic Appeals Into Specialty Deals
Despite constant advances in the technology market with gadgets, games and computers, as well as electronic toys for children, many specialty toy stores consciously keep their product selection founded in more traditional toys.... 12/1/2008 |
|  How to Surpass Last Year’s Holidays
There’s anxiety among specialty toy-store owners as they consider the uncertainty of the impending holiday season.... 11/1/2008 | |  Retailing Tips: Finding the Right Dolls
I remember, as a child, pressing my face against a toy-store window and falling in love with a doll. At the time, choices for toys and dolls were more limited.... 8/1/2008 | |  Retailing Tips: Ordering By Customer Request
Most specialty toy-store owners told TDmonthly Magazine they get requests for items they don’t carry quite often, even daily — but they don’t bring all the toys in.... 7/1/2008 | |  Why That Awful Toy Deserves a Second Look
It’s natural to be hesitant about a toy you don’t know much about. But are you missing big sales by being too cautious?... 7/1/2008 | |  Retailing Tips: Finding New Toys
Staying up-to-date with current trends, finding innovative manufacturers who’ve just hit the market, and looking for the toys your customers request are necessary parts of business, but retailers often feel they don’t have time.... 5/1/2008 | |  Boost Store Traffic With Evergreen Toys
Some of today’s hottest evergreen properties are celebrating milestones in their brand heritage with creative marketing plans and new products, manufacturers told TDmonthly Magazine.... 5/1/2008 | |  Retailing Tips: Get the Most Out of Earth Day
Given the barrage of environmentally friendly product hitting the market, now is the perfect time to capitalize on “green” by celebrating Earth Day not only on April 22, but all month long.... 4/1/2008 | |  Tips: Finding Space for Success
Two related challenges for successful toy-store owners are finding sufficient storage space when the trucks roll up to their doors and deciding what to do with merchandise that won’t budge from the shelves.... 2/1/2008 | |  Retailing Tips: Is “Hot” Too Hot for You?
Specialty toy stores aren’t the traditional place to find the “hot” toys seen in TV commercials and plastered throughout holiday advertisements, but every once in awhile, a toy will steam up in even the most sedate mom-and-pop store (anyone heard of Webkinz?)... 1/1/2008 | | |
| 2007 |  Turn Mass-Market Fiends Into Specialty Lovers
Kids might be crazy for the licensed products they see on TV cartoons, but they’re not likely the same toys found in your specialty toy store... 11/1/2007 |
|  Retailing Tips: Prepping for the Holidays
Preparing for the holidays requires a lot of work, so start early! Whether it’s hiring additional staff, ordering or organizing holiday events... 9/1/2007 | |  How to Thrive With Dolls
“Since 2000, the collectible market has gone soft,” North American Director Beau James of Corolle recently told TDmonthly Magazine.... 8/1/2007 | |  Retailing Tips: Order Strategically
Ordering toys for your store is not an exact science... 6/1/2007 | |  Retailing Tips: Plan Now for Christmas
Being ready for Christmas shoppers means planning months in advance and ordering when you're still busy with beach-toy sales... 5/1/2007 | |  Retailing Tips: Making the Most of Trade Shows
Fifteen minutes before the show floor opens at the American International Toy Fair, Manager Matt Hannifin of Science Toy Magic in Santa Fe, N.M., waits in the Javits Center, adequately hydrated and armed with a black suitcase on wheels, a laminated, Sharpie-marked map of the exhibition halls secured to the handle... 3/1/2007 | |  Retailing Tips: How to Find the Right Books
When choosing books for your toy store or bookstore, it is difficult to predict which ones will bring in high volume and low returns... 2/1/2007 | | |
| 2006 |  Lend a Toy, Gain a Sale
Although selling toys is understandably the focus for retailers, lending them is a trend that may hook customers.... 6/1/2006 |
|  When Does Humor Drive Customers Away?
Novelty retailers in particular need to know which controversial products mean high sales and which could draw protest signs.... 5/1/2006 | |  Lighting a Fire Under a Toy
There’s nothing quite as discouraging as a toy that sits on a shelf week after week. What do you do with such slow-movers?... 2/1/2006 |
