Internet Is Kind to Santa’s Smallest Elves

Few people had heard of Conscience last year, no less played the board game that helps teach children right from wrong.

It wasn’t sold at any of the big toy chains. It wasn’t manufactured by a well-known toy maker. It didn’t have a fat advertising budget to promote its message.

But it still caught the eye of the people who decide what to sell on Internet retailer EToys. They loved the game and thought it would be a worthy addition to their Web site.

They were right. Within months, Conscience, put out by a tiny Dallas start-up called GoRu, was a bestseller on EToys.

Online toy stores are rewriting the rules of the toy business. Large toy makers--such as Mattel and Hasbro--have long dominated the big chains. These toy makers can promise splashy advertising campaigns and guarantee a steady inventory.

That’s left the much smaller toy makers with the much smaller specialty shops to sell their products. While these tiny retailers are hardly a bad alternative, they aren’t as far-reaching as the larger mass-market stores.

But the Internet is breaking down those barriers. It doesn’t matter a toy maker’s size--it can manufacture one toy or 10,000 toys--to find its way onto Web sites such as https://www.eToys.com and https://www.Amazon.com, which reach millions of shoppers around the world each day.

“Real estate in the big stores has always gone to the names that everyone knows, and the small companies have been banging their heads against the wall to get shelf space,” said Chris Byrne, a toy industry consultant in New York. “This is shaking up the entire foundation.”

When EToys launched two years ago, it set a new standard in the toy business by mixing big name brands with specialty toys. Its founders saw the value of giving consumers access to eclectic brands, many with strong educational value, that aren’t sold at Toys “R” Us or Wal-Mart.

Today, EToys features a different specialty toy on the first page of its Web site each week. Its bestseller lists include what really is selling best, and in many cases, the smaller toy makers are represented more often than their larger rivals.

Other Web sites have adopted a similar format. The toy area on Amazon features dozens of small toy makers, as does the BrainPlay section on https://www.KBKids.com.

“These products are cool, but they never saw the light of day in the traditional stores,” said Jane Saltzman, vice president of merchandising at EToys. “But we have an open toy policy here. Anyone can submit a toy to us, and if we think it is great, we will buy it.”

When it comes to stocking merchandise from the tiny toy makers, online toy stores have an advantage over the bricks-and-mortar chains. Since they don’t have to fill hundreds of stores, the Web sites can buy a few items and then gauge customer demand.

If an item sells out, they can then order more. If it doesn’t sell at all, they aren’t using shelf space in their stores.

For instance, when EToys first took note of Conscience last year, it bought only six of the $25 games. But the response was incredible, and almost immediately, EToys had to order more.

“The Web sites aren’t constrained as much by the numbers,” said Craig Winchell, creator of Conscience, which now is also sold at www.GoRu.com, Amazon, Toysmart.com and a number of other Web sites as well as some specialty stores. “In the traditional world, even if you have the best game, you might not make it into the stores.”

Already, the Internet has opened doors for some small toy makers, and many others are eager to see what their presence on the Web will do for sales.

Amazon, for instance, helped make the board game Cranium a blockbuster hit, with more than 100,000 of the games selling in the last year.

Cranium is available at a suggested retail price of $35 only at Starbucks, Amazon or directly from the manufacturer.

Another toy maker, Rumpus, sold just a few of its zany stuffed dolls to Amazon and EToys at first. Now, it is shipping thousands at a time, and the orders keep pouring in.

The company credits its success online to the information available about its offbeat products and the customer reviews, which shoppers will never find in stores.

One of its toys, Harry Hairball--a plush cat doll with a selection of fish, birds and fuzzy hairballs stuffed down his gullet--has even made the bestseller list at Amazon, along with Pokemon trading cards and Furby dolls.

“It’s always been thought that you can’t have specialty toys and mass-market toys under one roof,” said Rumpus founder Larry Schwarz. “But you can, and these Web sites prove that.”

“People want to be able to buy hot toys and toys they see advertised on TV, but they also want something different and fun that they might not even know about.”

Despite the success of such toys online, e-retailers still note that the small manufacturers can be more work than their larger rivals.

For one, their toys aren’t as well-known and are rarely advertised. That means they have to give very detailed and lively descriptions of the products on their Web sites so shoppers will learn about the toys and be encouraged to buy.

In addition, the tiny toy makers aren’t as reliable when it comes to keeping up with inventory.

“The small guys may be able to easily handle an order of 100, but they might not be able to quickly stock an order of 1,000,” said Byrne, the toy consultant.