Toys“R”Us Closures: Exclusive Coresight Research Survey Suggests Big Gains for Walmart and Target

Executive Summary

Toys“R”Us looks set to close all 800 of its US stores, following its bankruptcy filing. To assess which other toy retailers are likely to gain from the chain’s closure, we conducted a proprietary consumer survey among US toy shoppers.

• Toys“R”Us is in fourth place in the US toy retail market, as measured by number of shoppers.
• The chain’s closure will leave three US retail giants—Amazon, Walmart and Target—fighting it out for dominance of the toy retail market.
• Even though they are already among the top three toy retailers, Walmart and Target look set to punch above their weight in terms of gaining share from closed Toys”R”Us stores, as Toys“R”Us shoppers already browse and buy from them more often than average toy shoppers do.
• In addition, Amazon’s toy shopper numbers are dominated by Prime members. The site sees low numbers of toy shoppers who do not have a Prime membership. This suggests that Amazon may struggle to pick up large numbers of Toys“R”Us shoppers who do not have Prime memberships.
• Our survey data suggest that dollar stores, department stores, eBay and Costco could also benefit from Toys“R”Us closures.