RETAIL INTERVIEW KIDLY
‘All things kids’ TnP talks to James Hart, founder and CEO of KIDLY, which he describes as ‘an online store, selling everything modern shoppers need for the 0-5s in their lives’ What’s your background? I was the first employee at ASOS. I joined alongside the founders Nick Robertson and Quentin Griffiths. We worked together at their previous business, Entertainment Marketing. In 2013, I left to explore doing my own thing.
Tell us about KIDLY. KIDLY is an online store, selling everything modern shoppers need for the 0-5s in their lives. We sell only great-looking, welldesigned things that parents and kids actually need, and we make the shopping experience as effortless and helpful as possible.
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People want greatlooking toys, sustainable materials and things their kids won’t get bored of in five minutes
Why and when did you launch your business? I was at ASOS for 15 years and I loved what we built: a one-stop, easy-to-use fashion shop, selling a trusted edit of the world’s best brands, plus our own label. So when I became a dad, I thought someone must be doing a similarly great edit of ‘all things kids’ - but they weren’t. I decided to do something about it and, in 2016, I launched KIDLY.
What is the ethos behind it? To us, a modern kids’ store means one built by people who are parents themselves or know kids well. We
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want to stock only the best products not all the products: stuff the kids will love, but that you’ll love too. And I’ve always thought shopping should be a total pleasure - but when you’ve got young kids, often it’s not. So we bend over backwards to make it effortless, and it’s run with integrity by really friendly people. The genuinely lovely comments we get about our customer service and our Live Chat team makes me feel really proud.
What age range do you target? We cater for 0-5s at the moment but lots of our toys and games are openended, so they suit older kids too. We went for this age range as that’s the time that parents are choosing everything - after five, kids start to take over and know what they want a LOT more (I have three boys, so I know from experience!).
How would you describe your range? We scour the planet to bring the world’s best brands together in one place and we’ll only sell design-led and genuinely useful products. In fact, everything is tested by kids and approved by their parents before we sell it. We also sell our own range of clothes and toys and homewares [under our] KIDLY Label. It’s all created with almost
obsessive attention to detail, so the fit and the function are spot on. We’re design-led, not trend-led, so we do seasonal colours and launches, but we look at everything as a whole. We believe kids’ clothes should harmonise together, not shout or clash. It’s the same with their toys and homewares they need to look great in your home too. And because the KIDLY Label is exclusive to us there’s no middleman, so we can offer premium quality at high street prices.
What are your key toy categories? Modern parents are much more aesthetically-driven and environmentally conscious, so wooden toys are huge and there’s very little plastic in anything we sell. ‘Open-ended’ and Montessori toys are really big too, not because these are buzzwords but because it makes sense. Everyone wants to buy things that their kids are going to love for years and use in loads of different ways. It’s almost a return to our parents’ generation: when kids were more resourceful, you ‘made your own fun’ and imagination was at the centre of play. In short, people want greatlooking toys, sustainable materials and things their kids won’t get bored of in five minutes.
toysnplaythings.media 02/09/2021 17:54
