Heather Welch, International Brand Manager at Edx Education talks about supporting its distributors, the trend towards purchasing educational toys, and its new podcast and free resources that offer parents tips and tricks for home-schooling, from the experts.
Do you have any business strategies in place to assist the continual smooth running of your business?
Many businesses are in crisis mode at the moment, looking for ways to diversify and get through the next few months – possibly the next year. We have focussed on supporting our distributors with our team discussing a variety of strategies for how we will continue to work together. Each country is in a unique situation, so it will be important for us to monitor the global situation moving forward.
Do you have any helpful advice or additional support you are offering your retailers?
Diversify your supply chain, with e-commerce strategies, especially over the next 12 months. With the UK and many other countries in lockdown and many parents home-schooling we are finding suppliers and parents are trending towards educational toys.
Do you have any information or imagery of new ranges you could circulate to retailers to put onto their own websites?
Edx Education have launched a home-school maths range this year. We have found a good uptake of this range in overseas markets. It has many activities to develop children’s maths abilities in a fun and exciting way, which is important to keep the children engaged in their learning during this time. Fun learning also helps parents to bond and play with their children in an interactive way. We have a PDF available upon request for those wanting to learn more about this range.
Once lockdown is lifted, are you likely to experience any shortages in stock?
Edx Education manufactures in Taiwan, which has been functioning normally at this stage. We believe this is due to early measures that the government has taken. May this continue for the foreseeable future.
What’s your online presence like? Do you have any plans in this arena in light of the outbreak?
Edx Education has developed a podcast for parents offering home-schooling tips and tricks. For many, this is unknown territory and it is good to hear from the experts. Click here for the podcast!
How will you continue to drive awareness to your product ranges?
We plan to continue with digital strategies over the next few months, and also provide many free online materials for parents to help with home-schooling and keep their children engaged, having fun and learning.
Do you see any opportunities in all of this?
Educational toys, arts and crafts, jigsaw puzzles and board games should all do well over the next 12 months; however, families will have to be careful with their spending patterns due to the current climate.
How could TNP help? Is there particular content you would like to see us cover?
Trends on e-commerce, what’s happening with Amazon and other big e-commerce players and how they will support the toy industry.
