darkSpyro

I'm still new here and I'm a bit curious about what you guys would think of this...

Would you purchase figures from a dedicated online Skylanders store created and run by Activision/Toys For Bob?

Let's assume there would be some differences from standard retail.

1) There would not be a Free Shipping option. You would be required to pay for shipping of the items purchased, but shipping would be combined for multiple purchases.

2) The base price of the figures would be more than at standard retail establishments by at least $2 per figure ($10 total) and $5 for assorted adventure packs ($25 total). There would be no multiple character packs (retailer exclusive) and packages would be clearly marked "Not for resale" as well as having clear advertisements on them directing users to purchase their figures at the new online store/at participating retailers and to report to Activison/Toys For Bob if they purchased it from an unauthorized reseller (with methods to curb that).

3) New figures would not be available for purchase for the first 14 days (due to agreements with retailers), but preorders would be allowed for new figures until release.

4) Limits would be imposed on these new figures to 5 each per main billing address with no PO Boxes or apartments with a reset every 3 months provided they aren't exposed to be scalping figures. There would be no returns, only exchanges for damage caused by shipping and only within 10 days of receipt and that information will not be reset. It would never truly be sold out of figures, but sellouts would get rolled into the next batch of preorders.

5) Figures would consist of only those introduced after the release of Giants. Retail exclusives would remain exclusive, but there would be random drawings for 50 exclusive limited edition clear Skylanders each month with one entry for each different figure purchased online that month.

That's all I can think of for now. So yea, knowing the few advantages and disadvantages, would you opt to purchase from an online Skylanders store? I tried to be realistic and make it appealing to the Activision/Toys For Bob side of the transaction as well. Keeping that in mind, what would you change in your idea of an online Skylanders store?

This is a great idea. I don't care if I have to wait a few extra days for figures or if I have to pay a tiny bit more. This at least guarentees me every figure.

i think its great

why should you pay extra?.... for postage i can understand, but this can also be easily avoided with advertisements from activisions. so you should be able to only pay the cost for the toy at retail price. things don't need to cost more than necessary.

@kappapopm: While it is true that at the $7.99 price point retailers are already making a profit from the figures, the average consumer would likely never get to purchase a new figure at cost.

I wrote the above with the perspective of sweetening things for both sides of the transaction. I'm being realistic, if it's not worth doing for Activision or their retail partners, you can be sure they won't be doing it. If the upfront costs bother you, you can offset the extra difference by hiding it in "handling" anyways, websites do it all the time, so realistically, you'll pay either way.

Another thing I kept in mind is keeping retail partners happy. Retailers would likely want some sort of advantage for stocking these items and if Activision decided to stock it themselves, it could seem like Activision would be more likely to undercut brick and mortar retail with stock and instead supply their own operations. That's why I wrote things the way I did them. I was thinking of a viable way Activision would be able to expand distribution channels to include an online store rather than simply shifting them from B&M to their own website.

Being able to get stock at cost, especially with having to create a new distribution channel and keeping retailer partners happy, pretty safe to say that's not happening.

your talking dedicated online Skylanders store by Activision/Toys For Bob here, right?... if you include other retailers as middle man, my point is mute.

I think an online store is exactly what they need. SOMETHING that will help people get what they want.

I think it'd be a bit hard to enact any sort of scalping prevention besides limiting how many a customer can order. 3 per billing adress per month should be more than enough. (So if there were 3 characters in a wave, you'd get 9 max for the month.)

I think one of the biggest problems for this or at least why it was never made was that it'd detract away from retailers. There's no doubt in my mind that Skylanders bring people to stores. That's customers who, while may not get what they came for, will 9 times out of 10 walk out of the store with something else. (This is especially evident in stores like walmart that has groceries)

@kappapopm: Don't get me wrong, I am talking about a dedicated online Skylanders store run by Activision/Toys For Bob, but it would be a new part of a larger Skylanders ecosystem, so retailers wouldn't be the middle man, but you can't just ignore the influence of retailers in that ecosystem.

@spyroflame0487: I don't think it'd be difficult to enact anti-scalping as I can think of a simple one, but one that would require a little bit of work on part of Activision/Toys For Bob. I mean for all intents and purposes, Activision might currently be okay with scalping because in the short term they're buying out all stock, so the numbers may be skewed greatly in Skylanders being successful (not that I have any doubt that it is), but I'm not so sure scalpers would help with the long term viability when it comes to Skylanders as a franchise especially if people get tired of dealing with shortages. You're totally spot on with Skylanders driving people into retail establishments though, not everyone is able to see the bigger picture.

See, this is why us random internet people need to work for these companies. We make smart decisions. I have ideas of my own, which can curb scalping, plus make it easier for parents to get a hold of.

Your ideas rock.

These figures should have been preorderable from the start.

Here's what's sad about all of this. Figures outside of the US, can be preordered by almost all websites. Here in the US, only Walmart can do it, but never does. Gamestop doesn't, while their EBgames stores in Canada and Australia do. Toys R Us online does, but it takes forever for them to list them.

Great ideas.

Cut out the middle man?

Nope, TRU will probably pay to ensure they get the exclusive deal again. As much as good idea as it is, if it's going to cost a big company money, they're going to do what they can to stop it.