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Pieter Schats, Chief Executive Officer of Toys “R” Us (Asia), acknowledges the conscious move into smaller and more ‘boutiquey’ stores. “This change came about since I joined in 2002.
The Asian consumer is of course price-conscious, but more importantly, they want to shop in an environment where they feel they’ve been treated very well,” Schats explains. “The major change that we’ve undertaken is to spend a lot more time focusing on the customer shopping experience. And by customer, I’m referring to two types: the one who pays and the one who plays.
“One of the difficulties of being in a specialty business is that it’s seasonal. During the peak season, everybody gets into toys and our stores blow out sections, and then during the non-peak seasons, they sort of narrow it down. This is one of the main reasons why we got into smaller stores. In the end, smaller-sized stores work much better for [the business] in an economical sense.” |
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For the most part, Schats spoke in the seasoned manner of a strategic marketing expert of the toy industry. In fact, this is about as far from the truth as it can get. Amused by the assumption, Schats says, “I don’t come from the toy industry, which is very unusual. It’s common to meet 35-year veterans particularly in the manufacturing, design and retail areas. So when I came in, I questioned a lot more things. Why this? Why that?
And that, I think, was a good thing.”
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