This year is the first holiday season without Toys “R” Us. Looking through the Toys “R” Us Christmas toy catalog was practically a tradition in households across the country. Unfortunately, Toys “R” Us was unable to survive in the age of Amazon and e-commerce. At the same time, Sears, another holiday catalog tradition, is in its final days as well.

Amazon understands that voids create opportunities. This year, the e-commerce giant did something that I can’t say I would have ever expected: they shipped holiday toy catalogs to millions of customers across the U.S., including one to my family’s mailbox. The catalog is approximately 70-pages long, but unlike the catalogs of the past, it is built on the age of connectivity and e-commerce. After prying it away from the hands of my kids, I scrutinized the catalog and found some pretty interesting ways they innovated this age-old idea.

1. The Winner of the Coveted Cover Picture Is…Imagination.

I love the fact that they elected not to show a single for-sale toy on the front cover. Just two kids wearing their pajamas, playing inside of an Amazon box turned old-school CRT TV with aluminum foil “bunny ears.” I have heard great salespeople say that you should “sell the sizzle, not the steak.” This is also a nice reminder that boxes make great toys and you get the best boxes when you make your purchases online.

2. The Amazon App Is Essential

The catalog doesn’t list prices for anything, but it does include a handy QR code that can be used via the Amazon app to search for the products pictured in a given section. Also, the app has another advantage. It is the go-to resource for smartphone users, especially since it’s easy to navigate and may include other incentives, like promo codes, that are not necessarily listed on the desktop site.

3. Custom QR Codes?!?

The use of QR codes is inventive even for Amazon. Simply open the Amazon app on your phone, click the camera icon on the Search bar, slide over to “Smilecodes” and hover the phone over the code, as shown below. I thought it was so cool to watch the app’s pixels fire as it analyzed the code. Then I realized that the app allows you to scan any product you come across (product itself, not the product barcode), then uses AI to find and link to the item on the app.

4. Amazon Exclusive Items

About 20% of the items are labeled as “Amazon Exclusive.” They are similar to products you can get from other retailers, buy you won’t find them anywhere else. If a kid really wants one of these items, there is a pretty good chance Amazon is going to get the sale.

5. STICKERS!!! Kids Still Love Stickers.

One of the most interesting facts about the catalog is that it has a page full of stickers that kids can use to mark the toys they like. This certainly came with an added production cost, but I am of the opinion that it will pay huge dividends. Many of the stickers have arrows or messages like “YAY,” “WOW,” “COOL,” and “PLZ.”

6. Web Traffic Control to Determine Catalog Use

Since the QR codes exist to drive traffic to a specific landing page, Amazon can determine who and how many people used the catalogs to find and finalize purchases. This is just good marketing.

7. A Special Gift Code

Unique gift codes give Amazon the ability to associate the catalog that arrived at your house with your account. Fine print says that it must be used by 11/18. This may simply be a way of creating a sense of urgency or a clever and convenient way to show off their Early Black Friday deals (their home page is currently touting “Early Black Friday deals.”

(I’ve blurred my personal coupon code so that I may use it. Yours will be located in that spot.)

8. 4-Star and Above Toys?

I could not fully validate this because my 10-year-old daughter took the catalog to bed, but spot checks indicate it’s true that, like all of the items in Amazon’s “4-star stores” which are physical locations starting to pop up around the country that only include items rated 4-stars and above, all of the toys featured in the catalog are also 4-stars and above. And, for the record, I cannot recall the last time any of my kids asked if they could take a catalog to bed.

9. Subscription Services

This is one of the more innovative concepts in the catalog. Parents can purchase a subscription box, so their kids can receive some new adventures every 1, 2 or 3 months. Possibilities include STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) oriented toys, Marvel or Star Wars FUNKO (I had to google it too), or a Prime Book Box. Automatic renewal means you will likely be receiving periodic surprise awesomeness for the rest of your life…

10. Don’t Forget The Gift Cards

There is a nice reminder on one of last pages that gift cards are available in denominations between $1 and $2,000. Selling a gift card is every bit as good as making an actual sale, and in some ways better, considering some gift cards are never used (breakage) and 72% of consumers will spend more than the value of their gift card.

How Can Anyone Compete with That?

Amazon is making waves in the holiday shopping pond with a marketing tactic that the biggest of gift retailers were built on. While a holiday shopping catalog is far from a new or novel concept, Amazon has put their own clever touch on it and will use it strategically to grab an even larger share of this years’ holiday spend. If you are looking for ideas on how to compete in an Amazon world, please contact me or any of the brilliant members of the Veridian team.