The new horizon for the marketplace and retailer appears to be Amazon toys. And third party sellers should be worried because it signals that Amazon isn’t going to be scaling back its own selling ambitions any time soon. The toys retail vertical is competitive right now with the void left by the end of Toys R Us earlier in 2018.
The products are currently for sale right now but won’t be shipping immediately but that is expected soon, indeed in days or weeks. But it currently looks like they will be exclusively available in the United States. The products form part of the AmazonBasics range and include:
- AmazonBasics Soft Play Single Tunnel
- AmazonBasics Soft Play Climber
- AmazonBasics Soft Play Climb and Crawl Play Set, 5-Piece
- AmazonBasics Kids’ Toy Storage Organizer
Doubtless, if previous form is anything to go by, then the AmazonBasics toys range will expand in due course as they test and learn.
Amazon continues to be a retailer in its own right and shows no sign of signing off from that and continues to ramp up its areas of “private label” selling. And there is wide speculation that it will continue to expand such activities with a move into pharmaceuticals being much touted.
Any Amazon merchant should always remember that, unlike with eBay, they are sometimes in competition with Amazon itself. Fashion is one key area. We’ve written up a list of Amazon private label brands that already operate but it may not still be exhaustive or current. You can find it here. Another media outlet has also offered its knowledge of Amazon private label selling brands here too.
It is also notable that since this new development was revealed by TJI Research that stocks in those well known toy manufacturers Mattel and Hasbro have taken a hit. Amazon has also said that customers ordered over 18 million toys on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
One Response
As a 3rd party seller on Amazon, I’m not worried AT ALL about Amazon’s own brand items.
So, they will now do toys too, along with batteries and microfiber cleaning products, so what? 4 toys in a category that has tens of thousands of products? Even if they brand 100 toys, it won’t “shape” the toy industry. Amazon will never become a toy expert and dominate the toy market, it’s impossible. That niche is way too fragmented for anyone to dominate it. Plus what happens every year is that new ideas/innovation drives best-selling toys lists – I don’t think Amazon will be able to win that game. Yes, they will sell some safe/tried and tested evergreen toys at a decent price but it doesn’t mean that they will dominate the category.