6 min read
Toys Forever - "The best thing is that you can spend your time as you wish"
Toysforever is a family business run by Karolina and Jens. Karolina has extensive work experience in retail and especially e-commerce. After a few years in the industry, a dream grew to run her own online store where she wanted to sell organic and sustainable products for children. In 2017, she took the plunge and bought a small shop of 100 m2 in her hometown Kalmar, which had an associated webshop. From the start, the focus has been on developing the e-commerce, but the physical store was a bit of a bonus for her, which has proven to be a winning concept. As she developed her webshop, the shop space became too small and when the opportunity to buy the shop space across the street came up, she didn't hesitate for a second to buy it in order to get a wider range of products and more space for the e-commerce to grow.
The first store focuses on organic and sustainable products for babies and the new 450m2 store is an existing chain with a wider range of products for older ages, which also includes larger products such as pools, airtracks and trampolines. For those products they have also opened up a showroom so customers can come and check them out. Over the years, Karolina and her husband Jens have developed the small shop of 100 m2 and the almost non-existent online store into a successful online store with over 12,000 items and 3 shops/showrooms totalling over 1000 m2.
Read their inspiring story:Karolina realised her dream of selling organic products for children
What do you sell in your shops?
In our small shop Toysforever we sell carefully selected quality toys and organic products for children. You will find educational toys for children from 0 to 5 years old. Many of our products are made of wood or fabric and have bright colours and fun shapes that appeal to children. Our goal is to focus on bringing in a large organic range. In addition, we are constantly trying to find new product categories mainly for the little baby such as baby bottles and blankets.
We are also working on bringing in more decorative products for the baby's room and some comfortable products for everyone. We have three children ourselves, so we care about children and work to ensure that they are surrounded by the highest quality, sustainable items and that they are non-toxic. The store also cares that the products have been produced and shipped under fair conditions. In our second store Lekextra we have a wide range of toys from well-known brands.
We have a carefully selected range of safe, fun and educational toys as well as outdoor toys such as pools, trampolines and airtracks. Lekextra always chooses suppliers who stand for quality and who help to protect our environment and surroundings. It is a chain that offers its customers a carefully selected range of toys.
You run one online store and two physical stores, how come you have chosen to work with both?
Our focus from the start has been to develop the webshop, but when we bought the business, we got a physical store as a bonus. The size of business we run is good to have combined webshop and physical store given that we can be in the same premises.
If you grow and become too big it is no longer possible, then you have to separate the business which is a more expensive cost. Although the focus has always been on our webshop first and foremost, we find it very enjoyable to sell and have customer contact in the physical store. But the main reason we have expanded the shop space is because e-commerce has grown in recent years and we needed a larger warehouse space and we wanted to develop the business with a wider range of products.
Our biggest turnover is clearly from our webshop because that's where we reach the masses and it's online that most people shop today.
Why did you choose Abicart as your e-commerce platform?
The previous owners had Abicart and we found it to be a fully functional platform. It's easy to work with and interfaces well with other systems. There are many good integrations included and in this platform even I can feel a bit technical and add integrations. It's nice to be able to do a lot myself without having to spend a lot of time understanding how things work. Overall we are happy with Abicart and would recommend the platform to others. Mainly because it is user friendly and easy to manage and you offer customers many integration options at a good price. To broaden our market, we are also participating in some marketplaces. Through them we sell to Sweden, Denmark, Finland and soon we will also open up to Norway.
What is the best thing about running your own business and online store?
The best thing about running your own business is that you can spend your time as you wish. If I want to go and pick up the kids early one day, I can do it with a little planning and forethought. Then there's the fact that you get to work on what you're passionate about and bring in the products you like. We also let the children help us choose products that they think will sell well, which has proved to be a success, the things they like to play with have really sold well. Getting that professional help has been very good and fun both for us and for the children.
Do you have any tips for others who want to start an online store?
If you are going to start an e-commerce business, you should bear in mind that you have to invest a lot of time and money to succeed. When you have both e-commerce and a physical shop, it is cost-effective to have them in the same premises as long as you stay at a reasonable level; if you grow and become too big, it becomes difficult and then the businesses have to be separated. Then it's important to see if you benefit from expanding or if it's better to stay at the level you're at. Because if you separate the activities, you also increase the costs, you have to pay more in premises and staff costs and then the activities can become less profitable.
Which of our subscriptions do you use and why?
We've tried different themes over the years to try out some different designs and layouts but now we have Hajde. We think that theme looks nice, it suits our products and our customers can easily find what they are looking for given that we have many categories and divisions. We have the PRO subscription on Abicart. We acquired it quite recently to be able to use more integrations. The PRO subscription was also required for us to be able to use marketplaces.
Visit adorable Toys Forever!
What do you sell in your shops?
In our small shop Toysforever we sell carefully selected quality toys and organic products for children. You will find educational toys for children from 0 to 5 years old. Many of our products are made of wood or fabric and have bright colours and fun shapes that appeal to children. Our goal is to focus on bringing in a large organic range. In addition, we are constantly trying to find new product categories mainly for the little baby such as baby bottles and blankets.
We are also working on bringing in more decorative products for the baby's room and some comfortable products for everyone. We have three children ourselves, so we care about children and work to ensure that they are surrounded by the highest quality, sustainable items and that they are non-toxic. The store also cares that the products have been produced and shipped under fair conditions. In our second store Lekextra we have a wide range of toys from well-known brands.
We have a carefully selected range of safe, fun and educational toys as well as outdoor toys such as pools, trampolines and airtracks. Lekextra always chooses suppliers who stand for quality and who help to protect our environment and surroundings. It is a chain that offers its customers a carefully selected range of toys.
You run one online store and two physical stores, how come you have chosen to work with both?
Our focus from the start has been to develop the webshop, but when we bought the business, we got a physical store as a bonus. The size of business we run is good to have combined webshop and physical store given that we can be in the same premises.
If you grow and become too big it is no longer possible, then you have to separate the business which is a more expensive cost. Although the focus has always been on our webshop first and foremost, we find it very enjoyable to sell and have customer contact in the physical store. But the main reason we have expanded the shop space is because e-commerce has grown in recent years and we needed a larger warehouse space and we wanted to develop the business with a wider range of products.
Our biggest turnover is clearly from our webshop because that's where we reach the masses and it's online that most people shop today.
Why did you choose Abicart as your e-commerce platform?
The previous owners had Abicart and we found it to be a fully functional platform. It's easy to work with and interfaces well with other systems. There are many good integrations included and in this platform even I can feel a bit technical and add integrations. It's nice to be able to do a lot myself without having to spend a lot of time understanding how things work. Overall we are happy with Abicart and would recommend the platform to others. Mainly because it is user friendly and easy to manage and you offer customers many integration options at a good price. To broaden our market, we are also participating in some marketplaces. Through them we sell to Sweden, Denmark, Finland and soon we will also open up to Norway.
What is the best thing about running your own business and online store?
The best thing about running your own business is that you can spend your time as you wish. If I want to go and pick up the kids early one day, I can do it with a little planning and forethought. Then there's the fact that you get to work on what you're passionate about and bring in the products you like. We also let the children help us choose products that they think will sell well, which has proved to be a success, the things they like to play with have really sold well. Getting that professional help has been very good and fun both for us and for the children.
Do you have any tips for others who want to start an online store?
If you are going to start an e-commerce business, you should bear in mind that you have to invest a lot of time and money to succeed. When you have both e-commerce and a physical shop, it is cost-effective to have them in the same premises as long as you stay at a reasonable level; if you grow and become too big, it becomes difficult and then the businesses have to be separated. Then it's important to see if you benefit from expanding or if it's better to stay at the level you're at. Because if you separate the activities, you also increase the costs, you have to pay more in premises and staff costs and then the activities can become less profitable.
Which of our subscriptions do you use and why?
We've tried different themes over the years to try out some different designs and layouts but now we have Hajde. We think that theme looks nice, it suits our products and our customers can easily find what they are looking for given that we have many categories and divisions. We have the PRO subscription on Abicart. We acquired it quite recently to be able to use more integrations. The PRO subscription was also required for us to be able to use marketplaces.
Visit adorable Toys Forever!