10 minute read
Retail Interview - with James Hart, founder and CEO of KIDLY
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 fi rst employee at ASOS. I joined alongside the founders Nick Robertson and Quentin Griffi ths. 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.
People want great“
in fi ve ”
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 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 fi ve, 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 fi t 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 fi ve minutes.
We’ve missed getting out to the fairs, but while we’re waiting for the world to open back up, we’ve been taking inspiration from everything around us. At KIDLY anyone - in any department - can make a product recommendation to the buying team, so we’ve got a constant fl ow of new toy suggestions coming through. And as many of us are parents, the ideas tend to be for things that our own kids have been enjoying, so they come road-tested from the very start. Also, of course, we listen closely to what our customers are saying - to make sure we’re stocking the stuff they want.
What’s your selection criteria?
Toys are a big category for us, and we get data and feedback from our customers day in, day out, so we’re pretty good at working out what’s driving them - play appeal, looks, sustainability and price (of course!). So when we bring in a new toy brand, we don’t take everything on offer - we hand-pick the products that fi t our guidelines on design, quality, price (all three boxes need to be ticked) and that complement our current range and the design handwriting of our own KIDLY Label. The great thing is, this could be a large brand or a small startup, from anywhere in the world.
Our strapline - ‘Things For Kids You’ll Love Too’ - was inspired by my desire to create a store full of things that I’d love myself, either in an adult size, or to display in my house. I think a big trend now is towards these kinds of products, that are fun for the kids - of course - but that also refl ect the parent’s style and identity. I like to think KIDLY has played a small role in this evolution and will continue doing so. What are you most excited about for the upcoming season?
Alongside the brands we curate, we also make KIDLY Label: quality, colourful must-haves for 0-5s. The range has been steadily growing for the past couple of years, but in 2021 we’ve launched some really exciting things - our Eco Swimwear Collection and our fi rst nonclothing product: a Foldaway Bucket & Spade Set. As a business, we’re really doubling down on KIDLY Label and I’m excited about the areas we’re branching into - like toys, in time for Christmas. Watch this space.
Since non-essential shops reopened, have you noticed reopened, have you noticed any changes in your customers’ online buying customers’ online buying habits compared with habits compared with the lockdown period? the lockdown period? ■ KIDLY Label
Foldaway Bucket and Foldaway Bucket and
Spade Set ■ Janod Colour Narwhy Janod Colour Narwhy ■ Haus Little Dutch Wooden Haus Little Dutch Wooden
Tea Set ■ Djeco Rainstick ■ Tomy Boon Pipes and Tomy Boon Pipes and
Tubes and Cogs Tubes and Cogs
Sellers
During lockdown, people set up their homes as temporary classrooms and their temporary classrooms and their gardens as parks. So, as you’d imagine, gardens as parks. So, as you’d imagine, we saw demand for homeschooling we saw demand for homeschooling kit and garden supplies soar. However, kit and garden supplies soar. However, unlike other retail sectors, kids never stop unlike other retail sectors, kids never stop growing and needing new things, so we growing and needing new things, so we never experienced a dip in demand for never experienced a dip in demand for everyday essentials. If anything, it only everyday essentials. If anything, it only increased - as you couldn’t pop out to the increased - as you couldn’t pop out to the shops to get them. Since restrictions have lifted, we’ve Since restrictions have lifted, we’ve not seen a seismic shift in behaviour. Our not seen a seismic shift in behaviour. Our customers are now buying for more days out but, with loads of staycations on the agenda this summer, we still saw lots “ Everything is tested by kids of interest in decking out and approved living spaces, bedrooms and by their parents gardens for fun playdates and get-togethers. before we sell it ” Marking a milestone
KIDLY celebrated its fi fth birthday in May and marked the achievement with a charity donation and offers for customers. It pledged to donate 5% of sales from its birthday week to its charity partner Family Action’s Creating Happy Memories campaign, which inspires families to develop new skills and interests together to strengthen family bonds after the challenging last year.
Alongside the charity donation, KIDLY offered deals on six brands throughout the week, including Little Dutch, Liewood, KIDLY Label and Kids Depot. Customers also enjoyed giveaways and interactive social media games, all with the aim of creating an online party feel.
James Hart said: “Celebrating a fi fth birthday is a fantastic milestone for any business, especially after such a turbulent year. The past 12 months have been tough for many of us and our birthday felt like a great time to give something extra to customers and our charity partner, Family Action.”
The donation is part of a wider initiative from KIDLY’s Family Fund: a charitable trust set up in 2020 that sits at the centre of all KIDLY’s fundraising activities. The Family Fund’s fi rst campaign ran over Black Friday last November and earned £25,000 for two charities - Buttle UK and Home-Start - to help families adversely affected by Covid and lockdown. The money raised bought hard-up households toys and trampolines for gardens, laptops to help with homeschooling, plus Christmas groceries and gifts. Parents struggling with isolation were given muchneeded emotional support, either via Zoom calls, doorstep visits or permitted meet-ups in parks and playgrounds. How do you compete with the likes of Amazon when it the likes of Amazon when it comes to toy sales? comes to toy sales?
We don’t. Amazon is great and offers something we all need in offers something we all need in terms of convenience, but KIDLY terms of convenience, but KIDLY is different. We look at how all is different. We look at how all our ranges work together - so our ranges work together - so customers know what they’re customers know what they’re going to get when they come to us: a signature of quality and style and usefulness. Plus we curate collections so that you can shop by age, by stage, by different gift categories, by ethical or ecological preference and seasonally.
We put a lot of time and effort into helping guide our visitors through the site, so they’ll really enjoy exploring but always know where to fi nd things - like you would in a brilliantly-merchandised department store - with informed and super-friendly help on hand, at the click of a button.
What’s next for KIDLY?
We currently sell around 3,000 things, but we are only just scratching the surface in terms of being able to offer a choice across all price points and all categories for our customers buying for their 0-5s. Of course we will always be curating and will always parent-test all products, but we think the perfect collection will be around 10,000 things. So that’s what we are aiming for. At that point, we’d expect our own label to be around half of our range. While we get there, we’ll carry on striving to deliver the best service proposition and the most helpful team of any kids’ retailer.
