Best Buy is making a bold move to capture a piece of over $10 billion in sales up for grabs
- Best Buy is planning to sell more toys than ever this holiday season.
- 90% of its toy selection will be new, according to CNN.
- Best Buy is the latest retailer to vie for a piece of the pie left behind by Toys R Us' bankruptcy.
Best Buy is making a new play for toys.
The retailer, which is better known for selling electronics, DVDs, and appliances, is planning to sell more toys than ever this holiday season.
Best Buy has sold toys before, including drones and electronic toys like remote-control cars.
"Selling toys isn't new for us. There's always been an intersection of toys and technology - drones, remote control cars, video games," Jason Bonfig, head of toy selection for Best Buy, told CNN.
The store will have more toys than ever in-store. 90% of the toy selection has never been sold before by the retailer, CNN reports.
The move comes after Toys R Us' liquidation earlier this year, which left a huge amount of toy sales for the holiday season - by far the most important time of year for the category - up for grabs. Toys R Us had over $10 billion in sales in 2017, according to eMarketer.
Best Buy's announcement is hot on the heels of announcements from Target and Walmart, which have both also outlined plans to beef up their toy departments.
Walmart says it is expanding its toy selection by 40% online, while 30% of the toys it's stocking in stores will be brand-new. Walmart also plans to make room for more toys in stores, and in some cases it's adding more aisles to stock them.
Target announced in October that it will have "2,500 new and exclusive toys" with 250,000 additional square feet of floor space spread throughout 500 stores. These stores will also be getting a remodel with more space for items like outdoor play sets and ride-on toys. About 100 of those stores will have a new layout for the toy section with larger displays.