Watch the recording of the talk here
[00:004] Espen Udjus: My name is Espen, and I work as a purchasing director in the Leeksbox. I've done it for almost two years — it's the world's best job, it's really good to say it like that. We've put together a little bit here today. Before I started in the Leekbox, I worked in retail, and I have done it almost all my life — mainly from the shoe business. I love buying in for sale, and I still get a little extra kick when we run a short, intense campaign.
[00:006] Ida Svenningsen Eide: My name is Ida, and I work as a market manager in the Leekbox. I've been doing that for almost four years. But I've really grown up in the neighborhood here, at the head office of Thon Hotels, where I spent 12 years of my work life, before I found the way to the happy South and the Leekbox. I hope many of you know about the Leekbox, but we can take the opportunity to tell you a little bit more about us. So we start with a little intro.
[01:02] Espen Udjus: Yeah, we started out as a family company that started selling toys back in the 40s, so it's well in our walls. We started online sales in 2013 and since then we have extended to both Sweden and Denmark. We have been purchased from Europrice, which happened in two rounds. But everything we are doing is being operated from the head office and our warehouse in Grimstad, where we are about 45 full-time employees in the low season, and many more in November and December. All the way we have had a strong focus on the efficiency and profitability of the company — ‘buy large, sell cheap’ has been a keyword that elevates my everyday life.
[01:47] Espen Udjus: And a little bit more at the end, we were also caught at one of the best online stores, which we're proud of.
[01:54] Ida Svenningsen Eide: Yes. We could probably give a whole 13-minute talk just about us in the Playbox, but we're invited to talk about live shopping. Maybe a little bit surprising for someone, but we've been doing that for two years now. So we're going to share some tips and tricks about how we work on it. But first we have a little film showing a little bit of the trip.
[02:17] [Clip from live consignment]: Welcome to the Toybox! Welcome to the new live broadcast. Hello, and welcome to Toy Space. Now we're alive with the very first Toy Space live show ever. We can start with this: all you need to do is write 'Lego Live' in the comment box. If you can find the five errors, you will write it in the comment field, and for each comment you will be included in the premium check. Type LEGO112 to get it sent in your inbox, if you have not already set. Thank you, we'll see you again — thank you for today!
[02:57] Ida Svenningsen Eide / Espen Udjus: We'll see you! — Hello. It's always as delicious to hear your own voice on TV. So why did the Leekbox start with life? I'm not going to say so much about how the process around it was, but Ida one day came up in my office and had found a fantastic new idea. We had to throw this on — we love to test new things, and this was probably so new, I'd say. We didn't know exactly what it was all about. Ida quickly examined the possibilities, who we could cooperate with, and what was out there. Together, we quickly found out that we had to do this. But the first thing we said to each other was, we're going to do this, we're going to do it as safely as possible.
[03:42] Espen Udjus: The first point on our agenda was, of course, that we wanted to increase sales. If you want to do this, it has to give something at the top and the bottom of the accounts. Then we have to select the products that the customer actually wants — the right products, at the right prices, at the right time of year. It's not good to start selling Christmas ads in July, so here we had to see what the customer was looking for. There had to be something extra, something that the customer does not usually get bombarded in a newsletter from all sides. We naturally looked at the LEGO — it sells all year, and we know that both the customer group and the willingness to pay are large, as long as we offer the right range at the right price.
[04:27] Ida Svenningsen Eide: Yes. And the other was branding. That's something we in the Toybox have traditionally spent extremely — it's almost flake to say it — extremely little time and money on. We have largely placed all our money in Google Shopping, and that has led us to where we are today. But we saw this as an opportunity to build the brand in a completely new way. So we use it to build knowledge and trust, and not least to tell the story of the Toybox in a completely different way.
[05:01] Ida Svenningsen Eide: It's Espen who leads these live broadcasts, and for him it's also about talking about our prices and why they're low — not just to show a low price, but to stand in the middle of the warehouse, among pallets and boxes, and explain why we can have so low prices. We can talk about our stock, why we can have low delivery costs. It's something completely different than just having the price on the website. We are also a clean online shop — we have no physical arena where we meet our customers. So getting a dialogue with customers in advance of the shipments — what will you see, what will you win — is something we work a lot with, in advance, during and after the shipment. So this wasn't just about sales.
[05:50] Ida Svenningsen Eide: Of course, we couldn't have scaled this if we didn't get sales on the top and bottom lines. But there's been a brand-building channel for us, this with live.
[06:02] Espen Udjus: It started with one shipment in September 2024 — we called it the first LEGO Live. We looked at the numbers afterwards, and it went very well. So before we were allowed that evening, we had already decided that we would do a new one in October, six weeks later. That's what we're in the Toybox. Then we saw the Black Week campaign, which is right around the corner, and the Christmas trade, which represents an extremely large proportion of our sales. So six weeks later we were ready for round number two.
[06:33] Ida Svenningsen Eide: But we like to think big, so then we thought, of course, how can we make it even bigger? Right after the Black Week broadcast, we did an insight study in Sweden — something we had never done before. It showed that we had extremely low knowledge in Sweden, despite the fact that we had been there for about five years. But again — we had just spent money on Google, so people had experienced us through buying and shopping, but the knowledge was extremely low. So instead of just turning up the Google budget, we thought: let's use live shopping as an opportunity to build knowledge and trust in an unknown market. And as you can see, from the first time we tested it has been stuck in the calendar.
[07:22] Ida Svenningsen Eide: We drive live from half-eight in Norway, to about half-nine. Then we switch and go straight to the Swedish shipment, ten minutes after. I always wear a pulse clock during these transmissions, and the pulse rises — you realize that you live when you deliver such a program. But it's also a cost question — we're collecting everything in one night to make it as cost-effective as possible. Well in February we're testing Denmark too. And the reason we've been able to scale this is not just because Espen is so damn good in front of the camera, but because we're very good at the job that's done in advance. We're giving a lot of attention to the time before sending, and we're going to spend some time on that now — we have some tips for you.
[08:20] Espen Udjus: So if you put it right, it's going to be a Formula 1 car -- that's kind of how we look at ourselves sometimes. It's not the driver who's the most important, it's the entire team behind that makes everything go as smooth as possible, and that makes everything actually possible. To make the shipment good, it does not just hold up a camera, throw in some goods and believe that the sale will come automatically. We spend a long time analysing which products are included, what prices they are going to have, and what categories, to create the best flow through the shipment. Together with our partners, we are bringing out the best of each other — the script is being prepared, we have collected expert on credibility building, and everything is being visually built out in advance.
[09:08] Espen Udjus: As a car in the Formula 1 circus, it is not enough to just show up — you must have done the job in advance to be able to win at all.
[09:16] Ida Svenningsen Eide: Speaking team — one thing was very important to us from the start: we should focus on what we are good at. We know that we are completely raw from purchasing and pricing. We know, objectively, that we are very good at marketing. We're world-class at customer service. We have a warehouse that works optimally, and a tech team that ensures that the website has the capacity for everyone to come. But what we couldn't, and we were very honest that we couldn't, was film production and handling a live shopping broadcast. And a little in the spirit of the Toybox we could have quickly set up my cell phone, found a working lamp in the warehouse, and just pressed the play.
[10] Ida Svenningsen Eide: But we agreed that when we first were going to test this, we would do it properly — there is no point in doing it halfway. So we contacted -- or rather, they made enough contact with us, because there's been a lot in the inbox from different actors. We got along with the experienced live shopping experts in Spree and Let's Go Live on the team. They're also here today, so we have to talk to them afterwards. We've never regretted a second of that choice.
[10] Espen Udjus: When the actual implementation is to happen, it is important for us to get the real thing out of the transmission. This should be the Toybox that reaches out to its customers. Therefore, we did not want influences, and we did not want fans in studios — we wanted it to be our own people in front of the camera, and it was done from our own warehouse. Therefore, it is valuable to create a personal inside identity in the team. You have a picture of that, don't you?
[11] Ida Svenningsen Eide: Yes, everyone has heard of “Hell Norway builds”, but with us it is “Heel Toybox builds”. Here everyone is doing construction — we have about 20-22 LEGO sets on each shipment. Here I sit with my son, Potte, who is very proud when he sees the construction works, and who doesn't want to give it away when we're done — but he gets happy when he sees it on TV afterwards. So here's everybody in, and here's the freight ticket going from our office. Anyone who builds the LEGO also knows that it can get a little bit hectic, so I don't recommend to brush — then it can become a real slide.
[12] Espen Udjus: This is a bit of the difference from the website, where you can view a picture of a product as well as you can — but to show it live and tell about it, in a way changes the whole picture. It is the disadvantage of being a online store versus a physical store: that the customer only experiences the product in one way. So now you can get a lot closer to the product, and it's proven to work very well on the LEGO, but also on many other things. A radio-controlled car, for example, gives a lot more of itself when you see the speed and the properties. The examples are many. So this is a typical flow in our shipments — we've been around the range of products.
[12] Espen Udjus: We feel like you can compare the construction of a live broadcast a little bit with a concert. It is important to go hard to catch the audience’s attention — that is already happening in advance of the shipment, but also in what we press on play. There must be a balance between products, competitions and content. And as at a concert, the viewers have to expect something really good at the end — it can be a reward in the form of an extra good offer, or competitions that are being thawed along the way, so that they stay on the scenic as far as possible. And not least, comments. Let the viewers take the utmost part in the shipment, comments as much as possible — what product they want, what competition they want to participate in, or just where they look from, or their own memories from the LEGO.
[13] Espen Udjus: More comments create more involvement and more views, especially on Facebook.
[13] Ida Svenningsen Eide: Now we have 6.5 minutes left, so we were going to include a competitive element that we use in our live broadcasts. The task is that you must follow extra closely — you should check how many times a particular logo appears on the next pictures. Also, I would like to hear what we say in the meantime, not just count for competition. This is important: the products are set, the program is pointed, so now it's about getting people to appear, or show up, on the live broadcasts. You don't necessarily have to have very high knowledge or many followers in social media to make this work in a good way. Sweden is a good example of that for us.
[14:41] Ida Svenningsen Eide: We had very low knowledge, very few followers in social media, but the seller for the x number of millions. So if you're going to make this work, you have to put a good plan for how to make people meet up. It doesn't just keep pressing on play. Even if you have, let's say, 100,000 followers on Facebook, and press a live broadcast without doing the job in advance, you can quickly end up with 30 pieces that look at. I actually see large players sitting with 30-40 viewers on their broadcasts, and then I think: it's not worth it. Instead, spend time doing this job properly. You have to make people aware of the event.
[15:37] Ida Svenningsen Eide: After all, you're going to ask people to spend an hour of their time looking at us, hearing about products and letting themselves be tempted to buy something. Then it's okay that I'm a person people actually want to spend that hour listening to. So here, Espen is used a lot to tease competitions or what kind of offer comes. But we don't reveal everything — they're supposed to be peeped a little, but not too much. We also use Facebook events actively. That makes us know about how many people come, and we can work to get more people to sign up for. It's also a communication channel for us.
[16:19] Ida Svenningsen Eide: Because when someone's signed up, we kind of have them in our pocket — we can communicate with them, they get messages when we post something, and we can build up expectations. Maybe you signed up for the event one week before the shipment — I probably forgot it myself, I have a lot more to think about. Being active, especially the two days before and just before sending, is absolutely critical of reminding people: remember tonight at eight — half eight, actually. You must simply fill the room before you go live. We have tested a lot different — we use our own channels, send segmented newsletters.
[17:13] Espen Udjus [teaser clips]: There you go. That's better. - Oh, great. Are you ready, Gregor? Always. We'll see you at eight tonight.
[17:19] Ida Svenningsen Eide: Yes, it was an example — very low threshold, recorded one hour before sending. The Esp is probably tired of me coming to ask about the last kiss, but it's completely critical. We use everything we can on our website to bring people along. We use Meta to a large extent, since it's a Facebook event. We have tested the content of VG and the evening blade with great success. So we've tried to find the most cost-effective way to reach the right customers. If only ten thousand were involved in winning the prize, without interest in trading, it would not have been good for us. We have to have people who want to act too — and there I can give some bragging to INEVO, which helps us with that.
[1:14] Ida Svenningsen Eide: There is a cheer from the hall — yes.
[1:23] Espen Udjus: So that's what it looks like. I would like to see it physically, but when we press play, customers are flowing in — the store is opened. When the ready signal is given from the back camera, we take good time to go through the range of products. We spend a lot of time explaining things that we might think are logical. We have lots of examples that people don't catch up with anything if they just say it once. We clearly explain the journey from the display of the product to checkout — it is important to get them on immediately. We constantly encourage dialogue, and talk about our customer service, which is ready.
[19:05] Ida Svenningsen Eide: During the live broadcast, yes — I forgot to say that we also have a function where, when you sign up for the event or engage with some of our articles, you will be added to a list in Messenger, so you will get a message just before we go live. We can communicate with you through Messenger afterwards. And a little bit about the results: we've talked about millions of sales, and most of them are running online stores themselves. We thought: if this had been a physical store — and live shopping is the closest we get a physical store — think if you had 4,000 people inside your store at the same time, for nearly 30 minutes, while they asked 56 questions about the products, would win things, shop for millions and at the same time join the customer club.
[20:08] Ida Svenningsen Eide: There had been a real chaos, I think. But it is not — on our live broadcasts it is quiet and quiet, and people are being acted in peace and quiet and have what they are to have. And these results we had not gotten without all the work in advance. The Esp can be as good as he wants on the actual shipment, but the job is in the lead.
[20:34] Espen Udjus: Real products at the right time — the customer is very conscious of what they want, so think about it.
[20:45] Ida Svenningsen Eide: And that's not always everything goes perfectly either, we've experienced it several times. We had some angry Danes in our very first live broadcast — we changed the rules of competition on the way, we should never have done that. The Danes are their own people. We had an AI bamse that would tell an adventure on command — it wouldn't talk. Then my pulse went up again. We've had balloons with winning weights that disappeared. There have been things that made us think, "Okay, this can go wrong," but it's never gone completely wrong.
[21:23] Espen Udus / Ida Svenningsen Eide: Yes, there was some extra premiums for the ullibility at that time. — That is correct. But we learned from it.
[21:30] Espen Udjus: Yes. And dare take chances. Do not think that you are right for your company. Don't listen to all the experts — if we did, I wouldn't have been standing here and been outside the box like this. It could be fine anyway, but if you have a good idea you really believe in for your business, then follow it.
[21:47] Ida Svenningsen Eide: Go on, yeah. The same thing Espen said: use the people you have internally. Not everyone wants to stand in front of the camera, but there are certain many of you who can do that job, which can be credible enough for that. And don't use the budget on an influencer learning your product ten minutes before sending.
[22:11] Espen Udjus: Instead, apply the ten minutes to something else.
[22:14] Ida Svenningsen Eide: And again, make sure people actually show up. You can play a perfect match, but if you miss the last ten minutes, or don't put the ball in the goal, you don't win. And then the goal is met.
[22:37] Espen Udjus: Very well said. And then we're going to end up with that. We have to go and distribute a little LEGO.