For Ali Kermani, who joined Razor shortly before it introduced its ubiquitous scooter in 2000, and who serves as its VP of marketing, the idea began to germinate about eight years ago.
Kermani was in an independent toy store in Monrovia, California, where he lives, when he asked the person behind the counter to point out her favorite product, which turned out to be a non-motorized, pedal-powered go-kart.
“‘Grandparents love these,’” Kermani told Retail Brew he recalled her saying. The toy represented a “‘return to physical play’” and because “‘it’s not electronic, grandparents feel comfortable with it,’” the woman continued. “She’s like, “This is our No. 1 seller for grandparents gifting.’”
Kermani recalled that conversation earlier this year, as Razor was planning the (literal) rollout of its latest offering, a non-motorized version of its popular Crazy Cart, a go-kart that can spin in circles, called the Crazy Cart Shuffle. Here was a kid-powered toy that, he suspected, could light up boomers shopping for their grandchildren.
Razor had never targeted grandparents in a product launch, but Kermani, who designed the Crazy Cart line himself and earns royalties for their sales, was determined to give it, fittingly, a whirl. He thought QVC could be the place to reach them, and QVC was interested but, he continued, asked for a two-month exclusive.
“And so I went to the sales team and said, ‘Look, guys, I need time to get QVC an exclusive,’” he said. “Everybody top to bottom was like, ‘Bad idea, Ali. You’re losing sales.’”
But Kermani persisted, and Razor agreed to give QVC an exclusive for July and August. He flew to Pennsylvania, where he’d appear for a segment in QVC studios in West Chester on July 15 to introduce the Crazy Cart Shuffle.
“I was hoping maybe in a great, amazing showing, I could get a couple hundred sold,” he said.
QV…whee! In the segment, the host, Jennifer Coffey, was riding a cart in the studio, as was Kermani, along with two kids.
“This is going to be one of the ‘hottest’ toys of the season, friends,” Coffey said, as she rode the cart around the studio, then proceeded to list qualities that may be less compelling to kids than to nostalgic boomers. “It’s not anything that requires a charge. You don’t need a battery. You don’t need a cord. You don’t need to learn how to play it like you do a video game.”
And then she really pushed the boomer-nostalgia button.
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“What you need to do is do what we used to do when we were little kids,” Coffey continued. “Remember when we were little kids and your parents used to tell you, ‘Go outside, don’t come back in until the streetlights come back on?’”
Razor had produced 2,000 of the carts, all of which were up for grabs for QVC viewers, discounted at $99.98, plus $7.50 shipping. (The MSRP is $119.99).
Just three minutes into the segment, Coffey indicated they’d sold 500 units; after five and a half minutes, she said they’d sold more than 1,000; three minutes later, as the segment was ending, they’d sold more than 1,800; and according to Kermani, in under nine minutes, all 2,000—totaling $200,000 of product—had sold.
“Everybody at QVC was jaw-dropped and frozen. I was jaw-dropped. I thought their numbers were wrong,” Kermani told us.
Razor quickly began to manufacture another 20,000 units, and Kermani returned to make four more appearances on QVC on the last weekend of July, where they sold advanced orders, which would be delivered by November 1. They sold another 11,188 units, more than $1.12 million in sales.
Senior sit-and-spins: When the QVC exclusive ended September 1, the cart went on sale at major retailers including Amazon and Target, but grandparents are still the focus of advertising.
- Razor is placing Amazon Ads and “grandparents will be one of the main demographics we will be aiming our advertisements at,” Kermani explained in an email.
- Razor also is “aiming a portion of our marketing efforts at senior-focused media and groups like [the] AARP,” Kermani continued.
While the Crazy Cart Shuffle that Kermani rode on QVC is a bit small for adults and has a weight limit of 120 pounds, Razor increasingly has made adult versions of its toys.
After the original motorized Crazy Cart was introduced for kids in 2013, a larger adult-sized version, Crazy Cart XL, was introduced in 2014.
Today’s parents and grandparents are more interested in what Kermani called “intergenerational play” than previous generations, said Kermani, who himself is one of those dads who’s a lifelong skateboarder and teaches—not watches—his children at the skatepark.
So while he doesn’t envision many grandparents folding themselves into the new non-motorized cart, he does see active seniors getting into a Crazy Cart XL to play with their grandchildren.
“You’re still sitting down at eye level with them, interacting with them, laughing, playing, and learning,” Kermani said.