Chefs' Toys
A recipe for online expansion.
Overview
For years, Chefs’ Toys has been well known and loved among Southern California’s chefs and restaurant professionals. Its inventory, professional service, and expertise made the restaurant equipment supplier a popular resource in the regional industry. The opportunity was to take that great experience online by partnering with the powerful Amazon Business brand.
Expanding a world-class brick-and-mortar brand online
Since 1988, Chefs’ Toys has been well known among restaurateurs and chefs around Los Angeles and San Diego. “We really value our customers and the relationships we have built with them,” says Tara Jaggars, eCommerce Manager at Chefs’ Toys. “Many of our customers have been with us since we started 30 years ago. Our owner is well respected, and customers love working with him. Beyond adding more stores, we needed a quick and easy way to reach customers outside of Southern California.”
With over 10,000 products in stock and ready to ship, Chefs’ Toys can provide almost any kitchen necessity a home cook, professional chef, or institution might need. Its diverse selection of cooking tools has helped the company become the largest restaurant equipment dealer in Southern California. Expanding their customer base beyond the local radius of Chefs’ Toys SoCal locations has become a business priority for the company. Amazon Business has given Chefs’ Toys a head start online.
“Customer reach and experience are the true benefit. With Amazon, your reach is endless.”
— Tara Jaggars, eCommerce Manager, Chefs’ Toys
Adding significant income with minimal labour
Jaggars launched the Chefs’ Toys Amazon Business account in early 2016 by loading 300 SKUs to get sales rolling while a new company website was in development. “We knew we had the right products and the right offerings for both businesses and consumers; we just needed a way to scale our business quickly,” she says.
Sales results with Amazon Business were immediate and impressive. “We added about $300,000 in the first year with pretty minimal work,” she says, an amount that more than tripled in the first two quarters of 2017 alone. “Selling on Amazon has been a big win for us,” Jaggars explains. “We’ve made $1 million in two quarters.”
Given the huge success of its first foray into online sales with Amazon Business, Chefs’ Toys is even more committed to the marketplace. With only 1,500 of its stores’ 10,000-plus products listed on Amazon Business, Jaggars believes there’s a lot of room to grow. “I’m really excited about Amazon’s responsiveness,” Jaggars says. “They’re really open and eager to help us grow even faster.”
Jaggars sees Amazon Business as a “household name” helping Chefs’ Toys expand its customer reach from Southern California all the way across the country. “Customer reach and experience are the true benefit,” Jaggars says. “With Amazon, your reach is endless. In fact, 60 to 65 percent of our orders are from the Mid-West and East Coast. Those are customers we could not reach through our brick-and-mortar stores and revenue we would’ve never seen without Amazon Business.”
The ability to customize product listings on Amazon with critical details and spec sheets helps Jaggars drive sales and ensures that customers order exactly what they need, providing them with a personalized experience similar to what they would receive in the Chefs’ Toys stores. That allows the company to leverage its offline strength of service and expertise online.
