Mar 23rd 2018
In March, iconic retail chain Toys “R” Us announced it would close all of its stores nationwide following its filing for bankruptcy in September. Edison Trends examined sales leading up to the announcement across Toys “R” Us and its competitors’ Toys & Games sales at Amazon, Walmart and Target.
Figure 1: Data shows the estimated averaged sales item price specific to Toys & Games products at merchants Toys “R” Us, Amazon, Target, and Walmart between February 1-28, 2018, based on the Edison Trends dataset. The data shown is based on a sample of anonymized and aggregated e-receipts from more than 2.9 million users in the United States.
Figure 1 shows the average item price across four merchants that sell toys and games, Toys “R” Us, Amazon, Target, and Walmart in February 2018, prior to the announcement of Toys “R” Us closures. The average amount shoppers spent on items was highest at Toys “R” Us compared to what they spent at other merchants (this was true throughout January-March both this and last year). Toys “R” Us saw shoppers spend an average of $44 on items vs. $24 at Amazon, $22 at Target, and $22 at Walmart.
Figure 2: Data shows the estimated relative sales order volume specific to Toys & Games product sales compared at merchants between January 2017 and February 2018, based on the Edison Trends dataset. The data shown is based on a sample of anonymized and aggregated e-receipts from more than 2.9 million users in the United States.
Edison Trends data indicates that relative sales of Toys & Games products compared between merchants remained consistently highest at Amazon.com throughout the year. In February 2018, Amazon's toys and games sales order volume was more than 36 times higher than those at Toys "R" Us.
Figure 2b and 2c: Data shows the estimated relative sales order volume specific to Toys & Games product sales compared at merchants between February 1-28, 2018, based on the Edison Trends dataset. The data shown is based on a sample of anonymized and aggregated e-receipts from more than 2.9 million users in the United States.
Looking closer at the relative sales of toys and games at merchants in February 2018 shows that Walmart saw more than twice the order volume than Target and nearly three times than that of Toys “R” Us.
Figure 3a: Data shows the estimated relative sales order volume specific to Lego, Barbie, and Transformers brands of Toys & Games product sales compared at Toys “R” Us between August 2017 and February 2018, based on the Edison Trends dataset. The data shown is based on a sample of anonymized and aggregated e-receipts from more than 2.9 million users in the United States.
Edison Trends also found that among popular toy maker brands sold at Toys “R” Us, The Lego Group’s Lego products have consistently led sales over Mattel’s Barbie and Hasbro’s Transformers products since August 2017.
Figures 3b: Data shows the estimated relative sales order volume specific to Lego brand of Toys & Games product sales compared at Amazon, Target, Toys “R” Us, and Walmart between August 2017 and February 2018, based on the Edison Trends dataset. The data shown is based on a sample of anonymized and aggregated e-receipts from more than 2.9 million users in the United States.
Looking closer at Lego product sales over the past eight months, we also found that Amazon leads against other merchants, competition between Target and Toys “R” Us has been close and Walmart sees the lowest sales. In February among the four stores compared, 78% of Lego product sales went to Amazon, 9% to Target, 8% to Walmart and only 5% to Toys “R” Us.
As the market evolves, we will continue to stay on top of the latest trends. To learn more about how Edison Trends can help your business, contact us at bizdev@edison.tech. For more up-to-date insights in the e-commerce space, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter, and follow us on Twitter at @EdisonTrends.
*The data shown is based on a sample of anonymized and aggregated e-receipts from millions of consumers in the United States.