Amazon.com Braces for Hurricane Toysrus.com

Amazon.com, Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) sells books, music and other things. TRU (toysrus) was once, to paraphrase Randy Jackson, the top retail “dawg” for toys. Then Walmart put an end to that, demonstrating that WMT is not on a war path with just local M&P’s (mom and pops); they’re out to destroy anything & everyone in its path. So far, Walmart has yet to launch their own home-grown religion; thus monotheism is safe for now…

(Did I just come across as a communist? I am not a Communist. Far from it.)

A little history; in 2000 (a year before I sailed to Budapest), Amazon & TRU hooked up. It was a perfect match; Amazon.com, the largest internet retailer was looking to expand its product offerings. TRU was looking to get online ASAP. Together, they envisioned great things. A deal was inked for 10 years. Needless to say, both sides were kvelling.

They say that hindsight is 20/20. In retrospect, TRU took the short & long path; they got up and running early on in the game only for things to get complicated later on. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that if TRU knew the relationship would get rocky, they’d have gone solo to begin with. For a great historical recap, read this WSJ article.

It’s now 2006 and Amazon.com has lost their court appeal. They knew this earlier, but procrastinated until informing investors. According to Amazon, the cessation of this relation may cost them $50M in operating profits. In May 2006, TRU announced their new online partners. The scheduled site launch is set for 07/01/06. My guess is that things over @ TRU corporate headquarters are pretty busy this week…

While TRU hopes to gain site sovereignty come July, here’s a few things you may not have known…

1) Toyrsus has a fully functioning Canadian Ecommerce site. In French and in English! The toy alliance, apparently, never dealt with Canada. Amazon.ca does not sell toys either.

2) The Canadian site provides a glimpse into of the future toysrus.com site too; they plan, at least initially to use the design as a basic template. This site design is so hideous, it ought to audition for The Swan (please come back). I say we call in the crew from “Queer Eye for the Site Guy“.

3) The Canadian website, toysrus.ca, has an affiliate program through Linkshare (Canada). They do not link to it anywhere on their site, so for now, whoever is managing their affiliate program is either shy, incompetent or both. Their affiliate program recently made a debut in a Linkshare newsLITTER.

4) The US site, toysrus.com, will also run their affiliate program through Linkshare. (Has anyone at CJ ever seen the Ditech commercial… I lost another one to Ditech!) How do I know this for a fact? ALthough my email to Steve Denton went unanswered, the toysrus.com marketing manager for TRU was kind enough to confirm this to me via email. Their plan is to initially launch the site and then move on to bigger & better things…like affiliate marketing.

5) As per the reply to a media inquiry I placed to TRU, Toysrus.com WILL be getting their customer list from Amazon ( i.e. email/info from customers who have shopped TRU via Amazon.)

This article form Investors Business Daily, discusses how poorly Amazon.com has managed the shopping platform for TRU & for their customers. Interesting piece. But can it be trusted?

As a blogger without a formal job (it sounds good when I tell people “I got a blog-job), I have plenty of time. So, I went to amazon.com and searched for the keyword “toys“. After all, amazon.com/toys is dedicated to the union between TRU & AMZN. The first three results check out: Aquadoodle by Spin Master (from TRU), Pop-Up Playset by Playhut (from TRU), Toy Set by Wah Hing Toys (from Imaginarium; joint venture between TRU & AMZN).

The forth product listed under toys is a Trojan Vibrating Ring! Word! Now, what is such a product doing in the toy department? This gets even more ridiculous…Under the product description, there is a section called ” Label Information” which reads as follows: (underlined by me)
Safety Information
This Vibrating Ring is not a toy. Keep out of reach of children. For external use only. Carefully read all warnings and directions for use on the insert. This product contains natural rubber latex which may cause allergic reactions. Some users are sensitive or allergic to lubricants. Do not use this product if you or your partner have had any reaction to latex rubber or lubricants. See additional warnings and carefully follow instructions for use on enclosed insert.

Hence, because the word “toy” shows up on this particular product page, albeit with the opposite intentions, AMZN lists this product as the #4 result for “toys”. A9 ought to audition for a lead role on the show Arrested Development (please come back)!

It’s no secret that other merchants are also unhappy with their AMZN alliances. After TRU leaves the rain forest, how many other retailers with follow suit? Target anyone? Amazon has created a section to prepare for Hurricanes. One can assume that generators convert better than Batman Action Figures… In light of the above, it seems as if Amazon was too preoccupied with readying others for Hurricane season, that they neglected to deal with their own Hurricane preparations. Come this weekend, will Amazon.com have the wherewithal to recover from Hurricane Toysrus.com?