In a retail landscape defined by closures, caution and increasingly tight margins, one independent Kiwi business is choosing a different path.
Less than two years after launching, online bookseller Book Hero is turning the page on its next chapter with the arrival of Toy Hero — a dedicated online destination for toys, games and puzzles, backed by the same distinctly Kiwi service that has already seen Book Hero win over more than 100,000 customers.
And if the numbers are anything to go by, the appetite is there.
Since launching, Book Hero has sold more than 345,000 books to customers across New Zealand. Along the way, toys, puzzles and games began appearing alongside the books in customers’ baskets, eventually accounting for around 20 per cent of sales.
Rather than treating toys as a supporting act, the team decided to give them their own stage.
Enter Toy Hero.
With 20,000 products already available, the new online retailer has been built around a simple proposition: competitive prices, fast delivery and, importantly, actual humans behind the business.
For co-founder Tim Wackrow, the move is less a departure from Book Hero than a natural evolution of what the business has already learned about its customers.
“We’ve learnt that what customers value most is certainty. Whether it’s a birthday this weekend, a family road trip or just keeping the kids entertained, people want to know they can order from a Kiwi business and have it arrive overnight. That’s exactly what we’ve built Toy Hero to do.”
That sense of immediacy is increasingly important in a retail world where convenience has become currency.
“Families were already shopping for toys alongside books, so creating a dedicated destination with the same fast delivery, fair pricing and personal service that people know us for was the natural next step,” Wackrow says.
A New Hero for Playtime
Launching with a curated selection of some of the world’s biggest and most recognisable toy brands, Toy Hero’s opening line-up includes Barbie, Hot Wheels, Bluey, Wasgij and Paw Patrol, with thousands more products and brands set to join the range over the coming months.
The ambition is clear: take the trust Book Hero has built with Kiwi families and extend it into another category where speed, price and reliability matter.
Retail consultant and RX Group founder Juanita Neville-Te Rito says that strategy reflects a broader shift in the way successful online retailers are building loyalty.
“Almost one in every four retail dollars is now spent online, but the businesses seeing sustained growth aren’t necessarily the biggest. They’re the ones giving customers a reason to come back through proper service, competitive pricing, fast fulfilment and a strong local identity.”
For Neville-Te Rito, the expansion into toys also makes commercial sense.
“Expanding into adjacent categories is also a natural progression for successful retailers. When you’ve built trust with customers, extending that relationship into complementary products is often far more effective than trying to acquire entirely new shoppers.”
And that may ultimately be the most interesting thing about Toy Hero.
This isn’t simply a bookseller deciding to sell toys.
It’s an independent Kiwi retailer recognising where its customers are already going — and getting there first.
In an era when many retailers are shrinking their ambitions, Book Hero is expanding its universe.
Toy Hero is now live at www.toyhero.co.nz.
