Making The Right Moves

The game category has rapidly become one of the most important growth areas in the entire toy industry, posting a jump in sales of 19 percent in 2005 alone, reports The NPD Group, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based retail tracking firm.

This news wouldn't surprise Jude La Rene, owner of Izilla Toys in Seattle, Wash.

When La Rene opened his shop three years ago with wife and business partner Jennifer Schneeweis, he already assumed that board games would be a hefty chunk of his sales. Turns out, he was right.

“I expected [sales] to be about 10 to 15 percent,” he says. “But they're closer to 20 [percent]. Maybe it's because we have an eclectic collection of games.”

While most specialty retailers agree that games are driving business, opinions differ on what's selling best. It seems location is everything when considering what to stock, as each retailer must tailor its offerings to best appeal to its local customers.

La Rene says that he's eliminated classic games such as chess and backgammon to make room for offerings that customers can't get at big box retailers like Target and Wal-Mart. “I do informal surveys of my customers,” he says. “They come here for the toys they can't get elsewhere. I want to free up store space for those unique toys.”

Kate Tanner, owner of Kidstop in Scottsdale, Ariz., agrees. “We don't carry games that are on Target's shelves,” she says. “We bring in something that's different. Parents and especially grandparents, they want a hit when they buy a toy.”

But Jorden Walden, store manager of Big and Little Finnegan's in Portland, Ore., says classics are still a mainstay for his customers. The game area is one of the biggest sections of the store, he says, and in that category it is primarily classic board games—chess, backgammon, mancala, Monopoly—“that are our best-sellers.”

The challenge in selling games, says Walden, is convincing customers to take a chance on something they've never heard of before. The trick, he says, is being able to describe hard-to-explain games in a way that makes them sound fun to customers.

Dan Levy, president of Ruckus game maker Funstreet, Northfield, Ill., agrees that explaining a game to an unfamiliar customer is what separates success in the business of game retailing versus other less-cerebral toy categories. “Compared to most toys, games are complex,” he says. “Unless your game is something that can be explained and understood in 30 seconds or less, it's a hard sale.”

Hands-on training inspires stronger sales, retailers say. When salespeople fall in love with a game, it is easier to convince customers to open their wallets. This is why many independent shop owners regularly hold after-hours game nights and keep demo copies easily accessible to their staff.

“The easiest way to sell games,” Walden says, “is to have played them yourself. During slower times in the store, I encourage our staff to test out and play unfamiliar or new games to be able to better explain them to customers.”

Some retailers also schedule gaming activities for the public. Tanner's store sets up “Kidtivities” during the summer when the oppressive Arizona heat sends parents searching for indoor activities that don't involve television screens or joysticks. And at Izilla, there is a lending library so that customers can take new or unfamiliar games home to try.

Never underestimate the power of word of mouth, says Clint Harpster, a sales person at Nifty Cool Toys in Salt Lake City, Utah. Harpster says referrals from satisfied buyers bring in new customers, which significantly drives the stores' game sales. “They hear about an awesome game at Nifty Cool Toys and they have to come out here to check it out.”

Even though adults still buy most board games these days, having a reasonable price point is key, says Pat Booze, merchant relations representative for Hasbro's Wizards of the Coast division. Booze attributes part of Hasbro's success with its Magic: The Gathering trading card game to its suggested retail price of only $3.69 per booster pack, an affordable buy for their target market, namely kids 12 and up.

Magic's newest customers are younger children who have been introduced to the game by older brothers and sisters, she says. This kind of positive peer influence has significantly helped sales of the game, with a 48 percent growth spurt in the first quarter of 2005, versus a drop in sales in their other trading card games.

“The little kids want to do what the big kids are doing,” she says. “And it's a very minimum buy into the game.”

Izilla Toys sponsors Allowance Day on the last Sunday of each month when children get 15 percent off the cost of their purchase. La Rene says that his youngest customers will spend their own money on a game provided it costs less than $10. He points to Gamewright's card games as an example of an allowance-friendly line.

Walden says that parents have a lot on their wish list when they're searching for the perfect game.

“Education and entertainment,” he says. “And the best ones have both qualities. Some parents are very specific about their needs, such as a geography game or one to learn ABCs or math, while others want something that can keep an 8-year-old busy for an hour after school. Also, the really good games are made so a 6-year-old can play with an adult and neither of them will get bored.”

Kevin Garton, vice president of sales and marketing at ThinkFun, Alexandria, Va., says that his company, despite its successful puzzle-style games such as Rush Hour and TipOver, could be better at emphasizing the learning value in its products.

“We're looking at building those seller tools,” he says. ThinkFun already has Strategy Labs available for classroom use. The labs include several of their games along with information about the academic skills they exercise. “There are five core higher-level thinking skills that people need to develop to solve math problems,” he explains. “These higher order thinking skills are what our games teach.”

Booze concurs that concerns about a kid's math skills factor in to parents' buying decisions; those concerns can convince parents to pick up Hasbro's games, too, since mathematical concepts underlie the workings of all the card games in the Wizards division. In addition, Booze points out that Magic: The Gathering has a solid educational pedigree: it was invented by Richard Garfield, a mathematics instructor at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash.

“They're doing math when they're trying to strategize what to put down next and they're learning about odds. It's all mathematical equations.”

And like all of the best games—for the right player, it's also fun.