How to Open a Toy Store — Ultimate guide

Developing a business plan

This is a key step in building any business project. A business plan is necessary for you to fully understand the business, with its help you will know how much financial investment you should expect and how much profit you will be able to make.

The financial model will help you assess your chances of success.

With its help, you will make the most accurate approximate calculations and know the amount of your expenses. With such a clear strategy, you will greatly increase your chances of success. The sooner your business plan is ready, the sooner you can start implementing your plans.

Choosing a location and a premise

Location is an important point, because the toy store should be in a prominent place and attract the attention of passersby. The city center or a busy and densely populated area is best. You can open a store in an area where there are a large number of kindergartens, schools and various sports sections for children.

A very good option would be a location near the children’s hospital, so parents have the opportunity to please their sick children with a new toy and cheer them up. If you want to buy a premise, it is better not to save money and buy immediately high-quality in a good and solid building.

Renting in older buildings will cost less. but think about whether you want to take the risk, because you may have to make a cosmetic or global repair at your own expense. In addition, dilapidated buildings are dangerous to the life and health of the staff and visitors, and in a children’s toy store often come mothers with small children, so you should not put their lives in danger.

Cleanliness and hygiene

Be sure to keep the store clean and hygienic. Dust and vermin quickly accumulate in soft toys. If a child is prone to allergies, he may suffer from your negligence. Damp mop daily and dust off. The presence of insects, cobwebs, rodents and other parasites is not allowed. This threatens the health of young clients. You are responsible for their well-being, so the products must be kept in a supportive environment. In addition, store employees must have a medical certificate, as well as undergo regular medical examinations in order to exclude diseases transmitted by airborne droplets and other pathologies.

Name the store attractively

Children’s toy stores evoke associations in every child with magic and an abundance of bright things. Think about what name you can give your store? It should definitely be unusual and alluring.

Everyone knows that children adore cartoons, you can be guided by this. Use the name of a cartoon character, add a little detail or change its shape, it’s not difficult. In any case, the name should evoke positive emotions and make children happy.

Besides, with an original name it will be easier to make advertising. You can also create a logo that is gonna decorate the main idea of your store and makes it more attractive to other people. We recommend you to find a specialist who can elaborate a creative design especially for your concept.

Staff search

When hiring staff, remember that you own a toy store, not a butcher store. Candidates should be as polite and pleasant people as possible, who love children or at least know how to pretend well.

Personal qualities such as responsibility, punctuality, smiling, openness, dreaminess and a good imagination are welcome. The employee should know well the range of products and be able to offer the goods to the customer or help a confused child with the choice of a toy.

There is no fundamental difference between men and women for this position. Both sexes can get along great with children, so get rid of the prejudice that women do it better because of their maternal instinct. If candidates have experience working with children or sales, that’s a great bonus.

Rich assortment

Today’s variety of children’s toys is amazing. There are a huge number of dolls, cars, soft toys, helicopters with remote control, rubber ducks, educational toys, rubber balls, and so on. All of them are full of bright colors and attract attention. In order for sales to go well and there was regular revenue, your store should have toys for children of all ages.

From the very youngest to middle school age. Babies love rattles and toys which develop fine motor skills. Older children like utensils, cars, animals and dolls. The more toy options you give your customers, the more likely they are to come back to you. As you know, children are very inventive, they can make up some toy, and if there is something like that in your store, you have a chance to sell that product.

Keep an eye on product quality

Toys are the objects with which children interact most often, therefore, these things must be safe for the life and health of the child. The material of toys must meet quality standards, because it is known that these small and seemingly innocuous things can emit toxic substances, and young children often take foreign objects in their mouths. The material of the toy is the first criterion when choosing a plastic toy.

Bright, beautiful, easy to clean — these toys have a lot of advantages. But the disadvantages of a low-quality plastic toy significantly outweigh its advantages.

A safe plastic toy should be cool and firm to the touch. Smell the toy before buying. If a sharp unpleasant odor leaves it, it probably contains phenol in its composition, constant contact with which can lead to problems with the child’s health (liver, kidney function, severe allergies).

List of components hazardous to a child that may be contained in plastic toys: phthalates, toluene, phenol, polyvinyl chloride, xylem. For a toy to be useful for a child, it must be appropriate for the child’s age and height. For a small child, both too large and heavy toys and very small toys are dangerous.

Age restrictions on the packaging or label of a toy are important information. Children are usually very fond of toys with sound: dolls, phones, cars. But most low-quality toys have a noise level that is unacceptable for a child’s ear. The maximum that a toy can produce should not exceed 65 decibels.

But even if everything is in order with the volume, pediatricians do not recommend playing with such toys for more than half an hour a day — this is too serious a load on children’s hearing and psyche.

Supplier search

In order for the assortment of toys in your store to be varied and of high quality, you need to find reliable suppliers with whom you will cooperate on mutually beneficial terms. It is desirable that the supplier has certificates confirming the quality of the products and guarantees. This is the only way you can be sure that your customers will be satisfied with a product.

To be successful in business, you need to put in a lot of effort to grow it, but that’s not all. You must sincerely love your business, invest your time, energy and financial resources in it. This is very important if you want to receive feedback in the form of love and gratitude from your customers. What you give back to you is doubled. Take care of your customers and satisfy their needs and desires, then people will be supportive of you and give preference to your store when choosing a gift for their child.

Advertising your business

To increase sales and increase the number of customers, every entrepreneur needs advertising. Promotion on social networks helps to expand the audience and tell users all the information about the product. The more reach and views, the more likely a customer will become interested in your store and buy something. For advertising, you can use your own website or other popular media platforms. For advertising purposes, you can organize contests and sweepstakes on social networks. Mothers of young children love to participate in these activities, because it can make their child happy