Hasbro to become online retailer; HasbroToyShop.com will go "live" next month

Wednesday, April 20th, 2005 5:00PM CDT

Category: Toy News
Posted by: Seibertron Views: 17,289

From Playthings.com:

By Brent Felgner

PAWTUCKET, R.I.â€”Hasbro today said it will launch a direct-to-consumer Web site with a direct shopping component, as well as providing current information about the companyâ€™s portfolio of brands.

HasbroToyShop.com is scheduled to go live in May, initially focusing on selected brands including My Little Pony, Weebles, VideoNow and games from Milton Bradley and Parker Bros. It will also reintroduce the 3¾-inch scale G.I. Joe on July 1, with new figures and vehicles, which will also be made available to selected online retailers.

The venture into online retailing is nothing new for toy companies. Mattel has had online shops for some of its major brand groups and collectibles for a number of years. Other major companies, like LeapFrog and Lego sell online. And dozens of smaller toy companies have traditionally offered shopping on their sites, if only as a defensive measure against often impossible to win in-store shelf space. Yet, the sensitivity has always been that merchants will view direct selling manufacturers as competition, something Hasbro said is not an issue.

"No, I think this is very complementary," spokesman Gary Serby tells playthings.com. "Thereâ€™s going to be lots of great information about our brands for consumers to use to browse and research, and the vast majority of them will be purchased in stores or at [other] online retailers."

Serby declines to specify the number of SKUs initially on the site, but indicated others might be added over time. He also would not indicate how long the sales site has been in the planning stages.

"I think itâ€™s a new option to purchase toys and games online," Serby says, referring to the benefits of sales, information and marketing to more people as a "win-win" situation.

Credit(s): Shin Getter Robo, Playthings.com