Adult Toy Mega Store
How ADULT TOY MEGA STORE challenged the dominance of Peaches and Cream in the New Zealand sex toys market.
Intro: While Peaches and Cream started to get critical momentum offline from 2004-2011, (please follow the link to read our article on Peaches and Cream) opening one store after another across the whole country, an entrepreneur from Wellington, CRAIG RELPH, began seeing the potential in the adult toy industry. Peaches and Cream already had an established bricks and mortar presence so perhaps not wanting to follow in their tracks, he established www.sexgear.co.nz in 2006.
In 2010, Relph founded Adult Brands (*some sites incorrectly mention 2009 as the year of incorporation), which began operating the website www.adulttoymegastore.co.nz.
At first, he tried catering exclusively for a male audience with a few choice items.
It quickly became apparent that the female demographic was just as enthusiastic about the products and the range was expanded, and two years later the website went through a major overhaul and got a new logo and look.
In 2014, Relph implemented further landing page refurbishment. The new layout was the one that the public know today (see below).
And for 2017, an even sleeker website:
The success of ADULT TOY MEGASTORE is truly amazing. They recently moved into a 3500-square metre warehouse and there are plans to expand into the Australian market.
There are more than a few NZ online adult toy websites, so how come ATMS became dominant with already established competition? At Cinder, we were curious to know the secret of its success.
Obviously, they are doing things right – the site has many product reviews and interesting blog posts. They also have a monthly poll, active since 2014. They have garnered some rave reports from the mainstream press too.
We realised that while we have worked hard to advertise our business on Google, ADULT TOY MEGASTORE is normally ahead with the first position Adword. We did the calculations and estimated their monthly online advertising spend at around $20k.
So how come they have so much money to spend when they have been operating for 7 years? We started looking at the owner himself. The holder of 100% of the shares of ATMS – Craig Relph. Relph has a few companies registered to himself mainly in the real estate market. In 2003, he incorporated the accommodation facility Lodge In The City.
He also owns, or jointly owns, NZ Domains, LITC, Property Management Wellington, National Property Management, My Fitness & more.
Relph is undoubtedly a serial entrepreneur. He seems to have the talent of finding and funding good investments.
* All information in this article can be found online. If you find any mistakes, please contact us and we’ll revise it immediately.