Toy library concept

P

p_sam21

Adept
I have recently started a toy library (www.toysrent.in) catering to children in Mumbai.
While I also wanted to know your opinion on what you think of the website including feedback and suggestions , but my main objective to post this here is to have a opinion on how feasible do you think is the concept of renting toys for children.
 
IMO you will have to worry about four main things:

1. Breakage - kids are destructive little buggers
2. Hygiene - the toys will need to be disinfected every time someone returns them.
3. Loss - (not theft) say if you rent a lego box, odds are over the year there will be some pieces lost.
4. Liability - parents will not adhere to recommended age guidelines for toys, so you need to have a ultra-clear policy on liablity and responsibility for the use of the toys, as kids are involved more emotional responses for parental idiocy will be expected.

if you have considered these things (which i believe are specific to your venture) you should be good to go (assuming you have taken the other generic startup issues into account). Am at work, so the site will not open for me, so someone else will have to give you feedback on that.
 
@avi . ... responsive as in response time? if not can you elaborate on that
@soggy thanks for those tips, have actually taken those into account , What i am interested is whether this venture can take off good ... keeping fingers crossed :)
 
p_sam21 said:
@soggy thanks for those tips, have actually taken those into account , What i am interested is whether this venture can take off good ... keeping fingers crossed :)
Click to expand...

who are you targeting? Renting toys makes most sense for lower-middle and middle class families as it helps them the most, However, you will have to price the service extremely reasonably, which will not give you too much of a margin, so you will have to compensate by volume which will make your business totally dependent on inflation and the general state of the economy.
You could also target yuppies / upper-middle class with premium toys that they could probably afford, but may be too extravagant to justify buying. This would allow premium pricing/good margins but low (comparatively) volumes and some degree of isolation from "common people woes".

I think you may be able to get both groups to indulge in your store, but your success/failure will entirely depend on how the customers treat the toys and return them (leading to cost and in turn rent escalations).

Some other suggestions that you probably already have thought of but I will mention anyway - keep a large play area in your store where member parents & kids can play with the toys free of cost and maybe socialize a little with other kids too, your CSR could be an old toy buyback program (which you could then donate to a charity/orphanage), you should be able to get a tax break out of that.
 
Targeting of different income group is done through differently priced plans starting around Rs 299. On damage of toys 50% of mrp is charged from the member's security deposit, rest 50% is borne by library. Your idea about old toy donation is impressive. Thanks for the feedback dude.
 
there have toy rent library in my vicinity , as a parent i thought it will be good for me but for couple of issues
a) all the toys i have bought are broken and theres no way to stop it
b)secondly the kid just picks up toys at the store as we shop and theres no way to stop it either,
so i dont think the toy library is a feasible idea
 
@kippu
1.For broken toys, i guess it differs from library to library. Quality of service differs among service providers.
2.Since parent dont want to 'buy' a toy, wouldn't it be better idea to rent them?The concept has not taken off as well as it has in western countries.
The USP of any toy library would be kids enjoying toys at 10%-20% of cost, even after considering damages. For instance, we give out toys worth upto mrp of upto Rs 2000, twice in a month (total of Rs 4000 in a month) for around Rs 400 rent per month. On an average if a family is spending Rs 400 per month on toys, they will be happy to become a member of toy library?
 
Become a full fledged toy seller, and offer the toys for rent on the side. The business idea doesn't sound feasible for the Indian market (on a large scale), though you might find limited success if you market it well.

What are your immediate plans?
 
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