Talking Shop Santa Claus is coming to town This month’s indies are getting in the festive mood as the busy Christmas selling period kicks in with a vengeance. They also recap how recent trading has been and tell us which lines are catching customers’ eyes.
Mike O’Shea - Wicked Uncle – online
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t Wicked Uncle, we offer a carefully curated selection of children’s presents via our fun and user-friendly website and are pleased that orders have held up well in 2023. At the start of the year, the whole cost of energy and then cost of living crisis seemed to be all over the news and suddenly everything seemed to be terribly expensive. This hit everybody, and we have been very conscious of inflation. We have aimed to be as conservative on prices as we can, so as not to add to the problem. During the summer, the situation seemed to ease a little, and it’s a time of year when people always feel more optimistic anyway. Of course, in a really hot summer, everyone is enjoying the weather rather than sitting on their computer, but the good news is that we sold lots of outdoor toys. Popular lines include a whistling boomerang that really does come back and The Wingman foldable disc from Waboba. We stock a Jumbo Octopus Kite that has been in demand and Golden Bear’s Smart Ball was one of our strongest sellers during summer. Sales continued into autumn as the weather stayed warm, and it’s still going as a great present purchase. The Smart Ball counts your keepyuppies and you can also use it as an ordinary football. As soon as we saw it, we knew it was going to be a big success, We gave our sample to the warehouse team to test; they played with it in their lunch break and refused to give it back. We like to test everything to make sure it works properly and see if we think children can use it easily and have fun. Then we are able to give each product a genuinely positive review. We are always looking for new, interesting, fun products. As we are online only, a lot of our customers come to us to buy for a nephew, a niece, a godchild or a grandchild – or even cousins who live on the other side of the country. Often, they don’t know what the child wants and maybe don’t see the child regularly, so our aim is to help by providing a fun selection of presents that the child most likely does not already have. At toy fairs, this means we are always on the lookout
for fun, unusual products and great new ideas that aren’t mainstream. Our range is sourced across a wide breadth of suppliers, and some of them we use for just one or two products. We offer a great selection of lines from Marvin’s Magic and we also stock some fantastic lines from Wow! Stuff, Smart Toys and Professor Puzzle. We love University Games, which has some really interesting games such as Stinky Pig and Who’s in the Bag, which sit nicely alongside fun games from companies like Cheatwell and PlayMonster. We’re also very keen on the Upside Down Challenge game from Ravensburger which is great for families – players have to wear goggles which turn everything upside down, which means adults don’t have an advantage and everyone can join in the fun. October started as a lovely month with the sun shining, not quite so good for sales, but the weather helped to make everyone feel more optimistic. Customers seem to be a bit more settled now as prices have stopped rising so fast and energy prices have fallen. We have brought in some great new products for Q4 which has helped keep the website interesting – anything that will make people smile is always a winner. Meanwhile we have been updating our website to make it smarter; there are various design tweaks and we’ve improved the speed and the user experience. The site directs customers to recommended products for specific age groups and types of recipient. We don’t sell on Amazon or anywhere else and we have never believed in slashing prices dramatically or trying to undercut everybody. There is a fair price for every toy and cutting prices can indicate to the customer that you don’t value the product. Most of our lines are going to be a present for someone, and we think they are worth it, or we wouldn’t sell them. Last year, we were heavily affected by the Royal Mail strikes which made everyone very nervous about getting their deliveries in time for Christmas, but this year, deliveries are going very well. We are using Royal Mail
Toy World 31
Tracked 24 and almost everything gets there the next day, so we get lots of positive comments about speedy delivery. We like to get everything to the customer as quickly as we possibly can. For those who want the complete service, stock will be available on our website right up to the last minute - and we offer lots of choices for gift wrapping. We can put in a handwritten birthday or Christmas card too, meaning the parcel can be sent directly to the child - almost half of our parcels are sent out like this. We also include a pre-printed Thank You card so there’s no excuse for children not to send out Thank You letters in January – we know how they hate that! This year, Christmas is on a Monday which gives us extra selling time in December, which should make a huge difference and be positive for business. We are expecting to have a great final quarter.
