The deal means consumers in the region will now be able to buy both brands online, pitting Flipkart Group against Reliance Brands, the Indian owner of Hamleys.

Flipkart, the Indian wholesale entity of eCommerce firm Flipkart Group, and Ace Turtle, an omnichannel enablement platform, have acquired the rights to the Toys R Us and Babies R Us brands in India.

The deal means consumers in the region will now be able to buy both brands online, pitting Flipkart Group against Reliance Brands, the Indian owner of Hamleys, in a race to dominate the toy space in the region. The Reliance Brands subsidiary operates a chain of 88 Hamleys franchise stores. Having established itself as India’s leading telecoms player, Reliance Industries has for some years been firming up plans for a major retail onslaught that will combine its traditional outlets with an online element aimed at taking on Amazon and Walmart in India.

Now, Flipkart plans to leverage Ace Turtle’s omnichannel technology against its own knowledge in tech and consumer experiences, enabling buy-online, ship from store or pick up from store, endless-aisle, and other technological innovations. Flipkart has seen strong growth in its toys and games category, with 2020 growth coming in close to 100%. Its brands include Simba Smoby, Hasbro, Bburago, Lego, Melissa & Doug, and many more. Securing the rights to the Toys R Us and Babies R Us brands in India will be a major boon to the company, allowing it to bring a large new product offering to this growing marketplace.

“As a homegrown platform, we are constantly striving to build meaningful partnerships that are centred around the needs of our users,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart Group. “With the Toys R Us global standard of quality, Indian consumers will now have access to many toys and baby care products.”

“This partnership with Ace Turtle and WHP Global will see both firms bringing the best of their domain knowledge and expertise to innovate and provide customer-centric product selections that have value and quality at the core. In addition, we believe this partnership will encourage efforts to grow the toy manufacturing industry in India,” he added.

Yehuda Shmidman, chairman and CEO, WHP Global and Toys R Us, commented: “We are excited by the tremendous potential of this new partnership, as India is one of the fastest-growing consumer markets in the world with real spending power among a rapidly growing population. We look forward to working closely with Flipkart and the Ace Turtle team to build Toys R Us and Babies R Us into the leading destination for toy and baby products in India.”