On a much smaller scale, the new Toys R Us offers toymakers what they perhaps miss most in the market after the retailer collapsed in bankruptcy last year: a year-round showroom for toys and a place to test new products.
Teaming up with b8ta offers a way to modernize those aspects of Toys R Us. The startup trumpets its “retail-as-a-service” platform model for product brands. While b8ta historically has focused on electronics, CEO Vibhu Norby told Retail Dive in an interview that delving into toys makes sense as a category “very adjacent” to electronics.