The Barbie movie juggernaut that’s drenching the world in pink goo has an apt warehousing angle to it, useful to recall from an e-commerce inventory point of view.
Having shattered box office records, with a whopping $155 million grossed in the first three days of its US release, and currently sitting on more than $1 billion in ticket sales, the touchy-feely blockbuster is sure to trigger mega merchandise sales.
That’s what Canadian rival to Walmart, Target, had in mind when it placed a vastly exaggerated order for Barbie dolls and cute little pink convertible cars.
Launched in 2013, the retail chain wanted to aggressively edge its American rival out of the market and boasted stores in 133 locations by January 2015.
That same year the chain decided to ride a Barbie wave, but its reading of the market surf was a little off, to say the least.
Awash in a sea of merchandise by Mattel, Barbie’s trademark owners, Target’s over-emphasis of the doll, offered for sale at inflated prices, was completely off the market.
In little time losses of $2.1bn had been racked up, crushing Target under an over-supply of Barbie dolls, something many followers of the little bimbette might say is not possible.
Of course, Target’s rise to mercantile magic was nothing short of meteoric, but so was its catastrophic collapse through over-inventorying.
Although it’s not entirely just the doll’s fault, shoppers at the time described Target’s non-diversified over-focus on Barbie toys as akin to visiting a Mattel production plant.
The chain’s pink undoing was described in various ways: “a spectacular failure”, CBC News said, “an unmitigated disaster” Maclean’s magazine reported, and “a gold standard case study in what retailers should not do when they enter a new market”.
US logistics company, Universal Cargo, says: “If there ever was a lesson about the necessity of learning how to efficiently declutter your warehouse and keep it neat, this is it.
“Back in 2015, many people were surprised when Target decided to shut down their attempt to get a hold of the Canadian market.
“What a lot of people do not know, however, is that the reason for that is the wrath of Barbie dolls and their cars.”
Target’s warehousing capacity ultimately tanked because of its over-supply of Barbie-branded stock, Universal says.
