Toonz Retail to re-introduce Omnichannel operations

Toonz Retail, a one-stop-shop for all the needs of kids from 0-12 years of age, is planning to re-introduce its Omnichannel retail model.
Two years ago, the company had introduced their e-commerce model. However, that didn’t pan out as the management had anticipated.
In an exclusive interview, CEO & MD, Toonz Retail, Sharad Venkta told Indiaretailing Bureau, “When we started with our e-commerce venture, we could not match up with the market in terms of size and scale. Marketwise, we were investing a lot to acquire the customers as we wanted to remain a commercially viable option. Apart from this, we could not offer anything exciting or different to the consumer. So it did not take off as per our expectation.”
But after conducting the research and understanding the market better, Toonz Retail is again launching their Omnichannel retail model keeping in mind that e-commerce should complement their physical space i.e brick-and-mortar stores, which span anywhere from 800 sq.ft. to 2,500 sq.ft. across the market.
“A lot of times when customers come to the store they may or may not find what they are looking for. We hope we can convert these customers into online customers and buy to their specifications from our portal,” Venkta said.
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He further explained, “While shopping online, customers are generally a bit unsure about they product they are buying, what it will look and feel like when they finally receive it. This is the reason we are now giving them two options – Try & Buy and Buy & Try,” he added.
In essence, the customer can buy a product and get it delivered to the store, take a look at it, touch it and then buy it. If the customer is not satisfied, they can simply leave the product at the store. Similarly, customers can try on products in stores and order them online so it comes straight to their homes.
According to Venkta, “We are looking at this Omnichannel initiative from two perspectives – one that it will help boost our customer service and bring more shoppers to us, and two that this will add between 12-15 per cent to our total turnover.”
Exploring New Avenues
The kidswear brand, which is planning to close the year with a revenue of Rs 45 crore, is looking at two big sections right now – Infant range and Sports range.
“We are expanding our Infant range as the category has a lot of potential. We are creating a complete range of products – around 130 products – under the Wow Mom brand for infants, which includes products from the time the baby is born to the time baby turns 3. The second product category that we are entering into is sports and this will be for an older age group of kids,” he revealed.
Under the Infant range the company will introducing products like baby snuggle wrap, double terry, hood toy, baby nappy, diaper bags, baby dry sheet, shorts and pyjamas, sleepsuit, baby Wrappers, net bed, carry cot, stallers, walkers, smittens, mother bags and hand plugs to name a few.
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Whereas the Sports range will include products like tennis ball, cricket ball and swimwear.
Toonz is also launching a new collections of its home brands Wowmom, Superyoung and Superyoung Celebration.
Future Plans
Toonz Retail, which is promoted by agrochemical major Crystal Group, is also looking forward to make its offline presence stronger.
“In current financial year, we have opened about 20 stores and we are looking forward to open another 24 stores in the coming financial year,” said Venkta.
At present, the company has close to 100 retail stores in more than 15 states and 51 cities, largely operated through the franchisee model.
In India, Toonz Retail operates stores in Delhi-NCR, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Arunachal Pradesh
Apart from this, Toonz brands are available in countries including Nepal, Mauritius, GCC countries, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea and are also sold on portals including Flipkart, Snapdeal, Jabong, Firstcry, Paytm, Amazon among others.