Omnichannel to Top the Toy Market

Toys“R”Us Canada is the biggest specialty retailer of toys and baby products in Canada. Through 82 stores across the country and toysrus.ca, the company brings national brands, exclusive products, innovative loyalty programs, and unique partnerships to millions of Canadian children and families. The company has long been the market leader despite competition from several large companies, including Amazon and Walmart.

When the Canadian division of Toys“R”Us was purchased by Fairfax Financial Holdings in 2018, the company’s website was running on the IT systems of its former US parent. To become fully independent and chart a course for its own future as a market leader, the company needed to establish its own IT systems, including a new web platform with a clear digital strategy and a customer-first vision.

Toys“R”Us turned to Astound to implement a robust, experience-driven commerce ecosystem to provide a best-in-class shopping experience that would attract new buyers and keep existing customers. That meant providing shoppers with a seamless omnichannel experience—for example, a compelling online shopping experience could be extended into the ability to pick up purchases in store, and the ability for in-store representatives to view customers’ online purchase preferences under their accounts in order to be better able to personalize their in-store shopping experience. The company also needed a CRM platform for marketers to understand customers needs, a loyalty/rewards program to drive both loyalty and advocacy, a customer service system to tie to CRM, and a separate gift registry to generate revenue for the Babies“R”Us brand.

To achieve the company’s customer-first digital marketing vision, Astound utilized the latest Salesforce Commerce Cloud reference architecture—coupled with an advanced cross-cloud integration of Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Salesforce Service Cloud.

The Salesforce cross-cloud integrated platform that Astound designed and deployed streamlines critical marketing, service, sales, and commerce capabilities to integrate all customer touchpoints and establish a single view of the customer. Demonstrating a benchmark approach integral for future Salesforce projects, the platform enables cross-channel and multi-stage customer journeys. It also gives Toys“R”Us customer service representatives a new look into customer behavior, and enables omnichannel capabilities so in-store employees can view online purchases, respond to online requests, and place orders on behalf of in-store customers.