It's about being a memorable party in the nation's toy shelves.

The liquidation of Toys 'R' Us has retailers on all fronts fighting for their customers. They added stocks, strengthened their websites and organized special events in store for kids.

Gloves are among the 3 sellers of surviving toys. Target has almost doubled its merchandise compared to last year. Walmart inflates its inventory by 30% in stores and 40% online. Amazon is expected to print its first catalog of toys and market it heavily to convert current non-leading members.

But retailers around the world are fighting for a share of sales estimated at $ 3 billion, which analysts say are up for grabs from Toys 'R' Us.

The Michaels craft shop has added more than 600 exclusive items. Kohl's works in partnership with the brands Lego and FAO Schwarz. Best Buy sells plush toys and Barbie DreamHouses. Kroger will work with Geoffrey's Toy Box, among the remains of Toys 'R' Us, to bring toys to nearly 600 stores.

"The toy sales space has been very lively," said Juli Lennett, a toy industry consultant for the NPD Group market research company in a blog. "If there is one thing I'm confident about, is that the toy industry will be anything but the status quo" in the fourth quarter.

According to NPD Group, the toy industry, which includes games, dolls, outdoor sports and crafts, grew 7% in the first six months of the year , for an amount of 27 billion dollars. Most analysts predict an even bigger rise from one year to the next for the Christmas holidays.

For retailers, toys do not generate particularly high profit margins, but they bring something more expensive to retailers: what they call "affinity".

This is the idea that buying toys makes people happy, and that these positive feelings are spreading in the stores where they shop.

"We bring pleasure to customers," said Best Buy spokeswoman Carly Charlson. "We see toys as another form of entertainment."

The day Toys 'R' Us announced it would wind up most of its chain of 800 stores in the US, Minneapolis-based Target Corp. was holding a conference with all of its suppliers. The executives have seized the moment.

"We took the toy vendors aside and said," Look. We can be a haven for guests and also for you as great partners in this time of change, "said Mark Tritton, Target Derivatives Manager.

Target is moving quickly

In the early summer, the retailer convened a second summit with toy manufacturers and moved "with a high level of speed and agility," said Tritton, in order to make toys a more important and permanent focal point for the holiday season and the following.

Target has adopted the most aggressive position in the category of toys of all retailers this year, analysts said. It will offer more than 2,500 new exclusive brands, of which approximately 80% are "proven" products.

With longer-term participation, Target has redeveloped the toy sections of more than 100 stores, including 22 in Minnesota. The retailer has recovered space on CDs and other declining categories to add about 500 square feet (about three aisles) to more than 500 stores.

He lowered the height of the shelves, added giant screens and incorporated the children's book section. Target has designed well-designed play areas for children to touch and play with objects. It now has space to sell larger toys, such as horse tractors, as well as musical instruments and performance halls.

The company does not publish specific toy sales, but Barclays Capital researchers have recently estimated toy sales at between $ 4 billion and $ 5 billion, which would give Target one-fifth of the market. About half of the company's annual toy sales are in the fourth quarter.

Target "may have taken a step ahead of the industry's disruption," the Barclays report said, and is positioning itself to be a leader in the category.

The company saw its toy sales increase for 17 consecutive quarters – more than four years – including double-digit growth in the last quarter over the previous year.

"Given the strong affinity between families with young children and our brand, toys and the baby will again be key categories for us," said Target CEO Brian Cornell. The closure of Toys 'R' Us has created "unique opportunities" to generate traffic and gain market share, he said.

Retail consulting firm Coresight Research believes that Walmart and Target buyers are overlapping as much as possible with former Toys 'R' Us buyers.

Approximately half of Target's toy section renovations took place within a 5-kilometer radius of a former Toys "R" Us store, a strategy Tritton believes has already "directly captured" market share .

Walmart has refused to directly tackle the fall of Toys 'R' Us, but added that it also places a priority on toys.

"We bought deep and we wanted to make sure there was no out of stock," Walmart spokeswoman Tiffany Wilson said.

Walmart's catalog colors match in-store signs to help shoppers find items faster. This year, he organized concerts in more than 2,000 stores in September and October, hoping that kids could start their holiday wish list early. The retailer bases its merchandising strategy in part on the participation of focus groups – children of course. This year, pint-sized experts ranked their top 40 toys, up from 25 in recent years.

Whole Foods Catalogs

Amazon is also making a big game. It has released its 100 best toys two weeks earlier than usual this year, in mid-September, and is expected to print its first catalog this year, which will be displayed in Whole Foods stores.

According to NPD, about 20% of Toys 'R' Us sales will "just evaporate." Analysts predict that Target, Walmart and Amazon will compete for about half of the toy retailer's market share.

That leaves 30% for others, including independents such as Creative Kidstuff. Twin Cities' long-standing focus on specialty and educational toys and games has long separated it from mass merchants who can afford to turn toys into a waste of time. Creative Kidstuff has strengthened its website, making it easier to buy by age or category.

The American Specialty Toy Retail Association said its members are expecting one of their best years in 2018.

About 25% of toy sales are sold online and most retailers have facilitated online shopping. Lennett of the NPD Group highlighted the influx of non-traditional toy retailers into space.

Party City, which is not known as a toy destination, opens 55 ephemeral toy stores across the country during the first week of January, but none in Minnesota, and has launched a permanent website.

For the second consecutive year, Best Buy has produced a book of holiday toys, with pages filled with toys that have nothing to do with electronics: Fingerlings T-Rex, Legos, Fisher Price toys, stuffed animals, Minnie Mouse and many others. dolls and accessories in fashion.

A complete assortment of toys for 90% is new to the Richfield-based retailer. Best Buy said that these more traditional toys, as well as consumer electronics products such as game consoles, video games, electric scooters and drones, were closely related to entertainment, which the retailer considers a "need fundamental".

"We want customers to easily view their gift lists," said Charlson. "Maybe they come to the stores to buy a TV, a tablet or a phone charger, why not let them also grab a Barbie or Lego set?"