Toys R Us Online Sales Now Supported by Amazon
Retail Dive | August 21, 2020
Amazon is now fulfilling orders referred to it by the new Toys R Us' website. Consumers browsing products on toysrus.com are now sent via a "view price now" or "check availability" button to Amazon's website, where they can make purchases.
A little more than a year after its resurrection, and the new Toys R Us is still modest in scale.
The retailer is back as a joint venture between TRU Kids and its intellectual property with the former chief merchant as its head.
The company partnered with Target in October 2019. For Target, it likely represented a low-risk way to market its expanding ambition as a toy seller. Moody's retail analyst Charlie O'Shea said at the time that it would "provide Target with more weapons in its arsenal as it competes for leadership with Walmart and Amazon in this all-important category this season." Outside data analysis of Target's online toy sales offered mixed messages from the quarter.
With Amazon now in the mix, it's just as unclear what impact this next partnership will have. In both cases, there's some historical irony in Toys R Us partnering up with Amazon and Target, two powerhouses that ate away at the retailer's market share and sales over the years, helping to send the debt-burdened company into bankruptcy and ultimately liquidation.