CARLSBAD, CA–(Marketwire – Mar 20, 2012) – Zoovy today announced that Toynk Toys has increased online sales using techniques from Zoovy’s marketplace optimization™ (MpO), a methodology for studying and adjusting data to best match the ranking algorithms used by marketplaces to select preferred vendors. As a result of implementing Zoovy’s MpO techniques, Toynk experienced their best year ever in 2011. And during October — Toynk’s busiest month — the retailer increased the number of online orders by 391 percent and their online sales by 359 percent, when compared to October of 2010.

Founded in 2001 as a home-based business selling non-mass market toys and costumes on eBay, Toynk has grown into one of the top independent retailers for collectible toys and costumes in the U.S. Today, Toynk has about 40 full-time employees year-round with a large increase in staff during the fourth quarter. The company now occupies a 33,000 square foot warehouse with offices, a brick and mortar retail store and product inventory.

With an ever-increasing number of consumers flocking to marketplaces like Amazon or Buy.com to make purchases, retailers must capitalize on this trend. To effectively compete with other sellers who offer similar products, retailers must try to land the coveted "buy box," as sales are typically much higher for a product in the box versus a product that isn’t. As Toynk began to expand their presence to online marketplaces, they quickly realized the key to marketplace success was to figure out how to get their products to rank higher than the competition, so they turned to Zoovy to help them achieve that goal.

As a leader in success driven e-commerce software for online businesses, Zoovy developed MpO as a method to increase marketplace sales by creating a series of techniques to help merchants receive preference on a marketplace. For Toynk to maximize their position on a number of marketplaces, the retailer focused on three specific MpO tenets: increasing inventory availability across multiple marketplaces, emphasizing positive customer feedback and dynamic repricing.

• Increasing inventory availability – In previous years, Toynk held a limited amount of inventory across a few marketplaces. For the 2011 Halloween season, they altered their approach to carry more inventory and a larger variety of items across numerous marketplaces. By using Zoovy’s seamless marketplace integrations, Toynk was able to add additional marketplaces with real-time inventory tracking to reduce errors and overselling. By spreading their increased inventory across multiple marketplaces, Toynk was one of the last retailers with available inventory during the busy Halloween costume season, thus increasing their time in the buy box.
• Positive customer feedback – Since it’s vital for a seller to receive overwhelmingly positive feedback from customers so that marketplaces will continue to rank them highly, Toynk began to more closely monitor their feedback so that any potential negative issues could be rectified immediately. They also used a new feature from Zoovy that automatically sent out e-mails asking for reviews/feedback seven days after the order had shipped.
• Repricing – Price is frequently the largest competitive advantage sellers have. Repricing involves keeping tabs on what other sellers are offering for the same item and either matching or beating the sale price, the shipping costs, or both. During Toynk’s successful 2011 Halloween season, the company performed repricing of up to 1,000 items a day, depending upon the rate each item was selling.

According to Dave Madoch, Toynk director of web development, "Zoovy has empowered us with very effective techniques for improving our position on marketplaces. We now have a better understanding of what is important to marketplace rankings and can make adjustments as we go to maintain a strong position."

Added Brian Horakh, founder and CEO of Zoovy, "Marketplace sales strategies are constantly changing and evolving. The key is to arm your business with expertise to better navigate the waters. Much like SEO, achieving success with MpO is not a start and stop process but requires continuous vigilance along the way."

For more information about Zoovy, please visit www.zoovy.com.

About Toynk Toys
Located in Bensenville, Illinois, Toynk began by operating out of an apartment in 2001. Today the company has a 33,000 square feet facility that houses offices, a brick and mortar retail store and inventory. Toynk’s main products are toys and costumes, including the latest collectible toys, action figures, replicas/props, statues/busts and other collectible items. The company’s selection varies from mass market toys, specialty market toys, imported toys not available in the U.S., and a costume section. For more information, visit www.toynk.com.

About Zoovy Inc.
Zoovy is the leader in success driven e-commerce software and provides e-commerce tools and services for online businesses. With a multi-channel sales strategy, businesses reach more customers and drive more sales by integrating with multiple online marketplaces such as Amazon.com, Buy.com, eBay, and many other top comparison shopping services. Zoovy automates product management, listing, sales, inventory, shipping and accounting processes, offering complete online storefronts and auction management tools for small merchants to large wholesaler/retailers. For more information, call 877-966-8948 or visit www.zoovy.com. Check out our blog at blog.zoovy.com or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/zoovy.