3 minute read
Retail Interview - with The Very Group toys category manager Ann-Marie Edwards
TnP talks to Ann-Marie Edwards, toys category manager of The Very Group, winner of the Online Excellence Award
Did You Know?
How did you feel when you heard the news of your win?
So excited! As always, we were up against some tough competition, but we’re very proud of our ranges, our supplier partnerships, and our marketing campaigns. It’s always fantastic to receive recognition within your own industry, so we were over the moon to hear we’d won the Online Excellence award category. I’m so proud of our whole team.
Tell us a bit about The Very Group.
The Very Group operates a family of digital retail brands, led by Very. co.uk. Our purpose is to make good things easily accessible to more people so they can live life well, and we do that by offering more than 2,000 big brands and flexible ways to pay.
Across electrical, home, fashion, sports, beauty and more we sell pretty much everything our customers could need, except food!
How would you describe your toys and games range?
Our range is a diverse mix of products from baby and preschool to dolls, construction, outdoor toys, fancy dress and musical instruments. During the selection process, we focus on the biggest brands and ‘must have’ toys that we know our customers love - all underpinned by our flexible ways to pay.
With an annual revenue of £2.3 billion, The Very Group is a digital business that combines online retail and flexible payments. Its family of digital retail brands, led by Very. co.uk and supported by Littlewoods.com and LittlewoodsIreland.ie, helps to bring more than 2,000 labels within easy reach of customers.
What are your key product categories?
Over the past year, our key product categories have been outdoor toys and construction. We’ve also seen phenomenal growth in arts & crafts during We’re very the pandemic, which has maintained momentum over proud of our the past six months. ranges, our supplier What sets you apart partnerships, from other toy retailers? and our We know a seamless marketing digital customer experience campaigns is essential for driving customer consideration, perception, and loyalty. It’s also an important factor for the toy brands that work with us. Our brilliant tech team is always working on improvements to our app and website, like the recent deployment of a new image player. It means images on product pages load much faster and customers can interact with them more quickly. And we work collaboratively with our partners to build bespoke, relevant digital marketing campaigns that drive awareness and traffic to our brands and products.
Our Very Pay platform also sets us apart, and we have a loyal customer base who love using our flexible ways to pay.
Across electrical, home, fashion and more, the retailer says it sells everything its 4.8 million customers could need, except food. And its flexible payment options, which are provided via its Very Pay platform and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, help customers manage their household budgets How has the pandemic affected your business?
We’ve seen record-breaking growth throughout the pandemic driven by new customers and our multi-category offering. Being multi-category means we’ve been able to be flexible and adapt to changing customer needs and market conditions.
We opened our new, highly-automated fulfilment centre the day the first national lockdown began, and it’s helped us get products out to our customers faster than ever. Overall, our strong performance during the pandemic reflects the resilience and relevance of our business model.
What’s selling well?
Newness has been key for us already in S/S. We’ve launched lines from LEGO, Pokémon and Barbie and new licences such as Bluey. We’ve already seen a strong start to outdoor toys, and we’re excited about what the next few months will bring in that category.
What’s your biggest challenge right now?
I don’t think it will come as a surprise that supply chain is our biggest challenge, but we’re working hard to mitigate that. We’ve got strong supply chain and supplier relationships, we’ve got more stock than we did this time last year, and we’ve got the ability to distribute these products through our new, highly automated fulfilment centre. We’ll keep doing everything we can to make sure our customers can access the products they need.
