Redbox Digital lay the building blocks for a new shopping experience at Toys R Us and Babies R Us, South Africa

The commerce solution, built by Redbox on Magento Commerce, will feature a first-of-its-kind baby registry app and utilise Progressive Web Applications (PWA) to enable a ‘one basket checkout’ for its Toys R Us and Babies R Us online stores.

Toys R Us and Babies R Us are privately owned entities in South Africa and have firmly cemented their position as the go-to brands for toys and baby products in the region.

IT manager at Toys R Us & Babies R Us, Melanie Bird, said: “We’re growing as a business - making good decisions about which malls we should and shouldn’t be in.

The big opportunity for us lies online.  Our goal is to have our online store in the ‘top 10 stores’ in terms of turnover – we currently have 52 stores across the region.”

The toy and baby brand turned to Redbox to support its ecommerce vision. “We have been with Magento for a long time and saw no reason to change – the platform has served us well.  We started the process of looking for a specialist Magento agency in the region and after careful consideration decided to go with Redbox,” said Melanie.

Redbox will move Toys R Us and Babies R Us to Magento Commerce 2.3, with the site expected to go-live mid-June to coincide with Toys R Us 10^th birthday.

Redbox will be developing a baby registry app for Babies R Us that will allow customers to register their baby shower or baby’s event and create a gift wish list. Friends and family can purchase items from the wish list either instore or online and that item will be marked ‘sold’ or ‘bought’ and removed from the registry list.  The app will be a “first” in the baby category in the region and the company is looking to deploy a similar app for the Toys R Us division.

Magento Commerce comes with a whole new feature set – speed and performance improvements; a better mobile shopping experience; advance reporting; the ability to redeem gift cards online and a streamlined checkout process.

Melanie said: “Magento Commerce is a good fit for our business and a lot less complicated. We needed a lasting a scalable platform that will see us into the future and bring us closer to our customers.

“As a company, we are sitting on a mountain of customer information – valuable information that we are not able to mine.  We know all about our customers from the time they fall pregnant to when their baby is born and walking.  We want to be able to send them relevant information on what to expect at every stage of their baby’s development, tips on potty training and special product discounts – regardless of device.  This is where Magento Commerce brings the whole omnichannel experience into play.”

Furthermore, Redbox will be utilising PWA to bring the Toys R Us and Babies R Us sites together to enable customers to create one, universal basket and checkout – something they’re not able to currently do.

For now, Redbox has been working with the toy and baby brand to stabilise its existing site on Amazon Web Services and integrate it with its back-office ERP system Dolfin.  The site is “all-in-all much better” according to Melanie.  As an example, Toys R Us sales over the 2018 Black Friday weekend increased 234% from 2017.

“To date, the level of support from Redbox has been fantastic, which is one of the reasons we chose them in the first place. They’re “on it” 24/7.  We have a shared vision and goal and we trust they’ll do a great job for us.”

About Toys R Us

Toys R Us and Babies R Us are well established international brands. Commonly referred to as the “World’s Greatest Toy Stores”, Toys R Us SA currently boasts 52 physical stores in South Africa, two in Namibia and Zambia, as well as an online store. The key focus of the group is to ensure that customers, young and old, from children to grandparents, are offered an amazing range and experience, complimented by great value!

About Redbox Digital
Redbox is a digital commerce and creative design consultancy with global reach and experience.

The company builds digital experiences exclusively on the Magento platform and is a Magento Global Elite Partners and the only accredited OMS partner globally.

Over the years, Redbox has helped some of the most iconic and ambitious brands digitally transform their business, including Nespresso, Sephora, Universal Music Group, Les Ambassadeurs, Paperchase, Nestle, The Folio Society, Bucherer, Chapel Down, AXA and Screwfix.

The company supports clients across the globe with operations in London, New York, Los Angeles, Dubai, Modena, Mauritius, Cape Town, Sydney and Auckland.