How the Internet Has Made Toys and Games More Affordablesubmitted on 1 May 2017
The toys and games sector on the high street is a bit of a one-off. One chain really dominates this presence - the one whose name seemed to foreshadow text-speak by a good 20 years: Toys R Us. As a parent shopping there, I can't help but think that the offline shopping experience for toys feels incredibly limited in this sense. Of course there are independent toys and games retailers, but they are thin on the ground, and most people simply don't know how to locate them. Parents short on time go to the nearst big Toys R Us for sheer convenience and shop there.
Online is a different story altogether. The internet has become a bargain hunter's paradise with sites like Amazon and eBay putting sellers in the predicament of having to compete on price with each other. This has gifted buyers with amazing prices on all kinds of products. But dig deeper, and you can find even better deals online. Group-buying via sites like Groupon leverage the power of bulk-buying - they allow the individual shopper to essentially get a product or service at a price similar - sometimes even lower - than a wholesaler would enjoy. It's not just toys that you can buy on Groupon. From cameras & videos to savings on Microsoft store, sites like Groupon boast of a wide range of products and services available at rock-bottom prices.
But...how will this affect toys and games retailers? No doubt it's creating a downward pressure on prices both on the high street and on the independent e-commerce toys and games retail sites. Consumers are becoming more savvy with their shopping habits, and with the economies around the world still reeling from the 2008 economic crash, low price dictates everything. I expect further downward pressure on prices in the toys and games sector in the months and years ahead; that's certainly welcomed by the frazzled parent trying to meet the bills at the end of each month, but it's a tough road ahead for retailers.
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