Shopping for a kid is regularly tedious, especially if it was way carting your youngsters from one store to any other. At the stop of the buying spree, nerves are frayed, and the whole circle of relatives is left in a horrific mood.
Though e-commerce marketplaces and department stores have brought approximately greater convenience, there’s not anything like touring one store and finding the whole thing your toddler needs right there.
Understanding this hole, Sharad Venkat and Ankur Agarwal founded Toonz Retail within the year 2010 in Bengaluru, to assist dad and mom locate the whole thing they need for his or her youngsters under one roof.
How it started
Sharad recalls the time while he and his wife were spending their weekends strolling from store to some other collecting essentials for his or her infant. This was while the idea to open a one-stop keep destination for mother and father sprang up.
He mentioned the plan with Ankur, who turned into into insecticides business at that point. Finding a valid business case within the concept, the 2 teamed up and shaped Toonz Retail.
Toonz Retail operates multi-logo youngsters’ retailers for all wishes and activities for kids aged zero-12 years. The stores nowadays bring anywhere between 1,000 and 3,000 SKUs, which include infant style, kids fashion, baby essentials, toys, add-ons, toddler care, and hard goods.
Toonz Retail opened its first keep in Bengaluru in 2010, and now there are round 100 stores throughout India.
The corporation became based with an initial investment of Rs 10 crore with the aid of Ankur Agarwal. The employer now statistics an annual turnover of Rs 100 crore.
Getting child couture right
On the initial days, Sharad says that they began out with certified merchandising with Disney, Dora, and Ben 10 characters in a 1,000 sqft store. However, as they desired to create a one-stop store for kids’ needs, they needed to make bigger further when it got here to their product range.
Toonz started in-residence manufacturers- ‘WOWMOM’–for newborns and toddlers–and ‘Superyoung’-a fashion line for kids among 3 and 12 years.
These manufacturers are not only available in the Toonz Retail shops however also bought at 300+ counters across the country.
Toonz has a group of designers that style and launches round 400 patterns every season. Sharad says, “Our crew of designers deliver the designs to the factories which take orders from us on a settlement foundation.”
Toonz does now not personal any production gadgets. Sharad explains why: “The clothes and designs for each season range, requiring exclusive packages and equipment. It makes no feel for us to personal a manufacturing unit and feature machines idling among seasons.”
The business enterprise imports toys, accessories, and tough items from China.
No baby’s play
Running a company on Toonz Retail’s scale comes with its own set of demanding situations.
“It is greater of a franchise-pushed business and getting the proper set of companions for the
franchisees is constantly a project,” says Sharad, including that the lease for the brick-and-mortar store poses a challenge too consistent with various markets and places.
The brands WOWMOM and Superyoung are indexed on e-commerce structures like Amazon, and Flipkart. While also they promote on their internet site, Sharad notes that they don’t awareness a lot on online efforts as a great deal as they do offline.
Currently, Toonz logo exports its clothing lines to international locations like Fiji, Mauritius, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, and Papua New Guinea besides having shops across 60 towns consisting of Kanpur, Lucknow, Patiala, Chennai, Jodhpur, and Solapur
Future potentialities
For the destiny, Toonz is making plans to enlarge its presence to ‘huge layout shops,’ with a unique consciousness on Tier II and III markets. It is also looking at increasing its presence in current towns in addition to expanding in greater markets. Beefing up the web presence and expanding product classes are at the cards as well.
