Babes in Toyland

With more than 250 years in the toy business, captivating a child’s imagination is nothing new to Hamleys. The London-based toy retailer, beloved by both children and adults alike, was founded by William Hamley in 1760, and is a popular tourist attraction, as well as the recipient of two Royal Warrants.

In recent years, the store has been adapted internationally, including its newest location in Moscow. Located in the Central Children’s Mall on Lubyanka Square, Hamleys World, known as Mir Hamleys in Russia, debuted this past March. The mammoth 75,000-square-foot space has been dubbed the largest toy store in Europe, dwarfing the retailer’s flagship on London’s Regent Street.

Unlike its other locations, Hamleys World includes full-size interactive displays and attractions that elevate William Hamley’s demonstration-based retail model to an experiential-retail art form. For such an extensive undertaking,

Hamleys selected design firm Fitch (London) to conceptualize the store and Paragon Entertainment Ltd. (York, England) to consult in its attraction integration.

Hamleys’ traditional concept was adopted and tweaked to appeal to the modern child consumer. Competing with a flurry of electronic gadgets that have become an adolescent staple, the store’s design embraces the basic childhood need for discovery and play in its dreamlike layout, which has an evident theme-park influence.

“[Children] are used to playing computer games and their expectations nowadays are huge. You’re [also] competing with theme parks and museums that are experiential,” says Mark Pyrah, ceo, Paragon Entertainment Ltd. “I think Hamleys has always had a sense of magic, [but] it’s keeping up with everyone else [that’s the challenge].”

The store’s meandering footpath sends shoppers on a journey along a yellow brick road through nine major “worlds,” including the Enchanted Forest, Imagination, LEGO World, Magic Kingdom, Metropolis, Motor City, Park, Safari and Space, among numerous smaller themed areas. Each world centers on an anchor toy brand or motif, like the Space world, which houses a 50-foot Star Wars Millennium Falcon replica, where pint-sized shoppers can interact with costumed store associates and learn how to be a Jedi. As they exit the attraction, they encounter an array of space-centered toys from various brands.

“The whole point is that kids don’t buy toys and preciously put them on their shelves and display them,” says John Regan, creative director, Fitch. “There’s a different market for that, [and here], high experience is very much needed.”

Since the use of attractions was new to Hamleys, a firm business plan was implemented to prove the idea would be successful. Rather than spreading merchandise and interactive elements evenly throughout, or organizing by age and gender demographics (as most toy shops do), the store mixes high-experience/low-merchandise areas with low-experience/high-merchandise areas to maximize the size of its areas of play, while maintaining profitability.

Like-merchandise surrounds the anchor attractions and general merchandise is arranged in a more conventional manner, farther from the themed regions. Even in its “conventional” retail zones, demonstration is a key factor and children are encouraged to play with the product.

Each branded anchor attraction required investment from the desired brand, which proved to be one of the biggest challenges during the two-year duration of the project. To cement brands like LEGO, Hasbro and Mattel, the entire plan was presented to and approved by each company, which was a must from Hamleys before the brands could sign-on with the store long-term.

“[The toy companies] loved the concept of these worlds, but they needed to understand how, commercially, they would fit in and how could they bring in their brands,” says Regan. “Getting to that organizational principle was the outcome of a lot of hard work to try and make it feasible for all those big brands to actually get onboard.”

Combining tried-and-true concepts with imaginative new approaches, Hamleys World is positioned to share the heritage British brand with many more generations to come in Moscow and the world over.

Take a tour of Hamleys World in VMSD's Video Spotlight:

PROJECT SUPPLIERS

Retailer
Hamleys, London
Ideas4Retail, Moscow

Design
Fitch, London

Attraction Consultancy
Paragon Entertainment Group, York, England, U.K.

Photography: Jon Meade, London