Toysrus.com and Amazon.com tackle the specialty-learning toy category

Toysrus.com and Amazon.com are launching Imaginarium, a co-branded specialty and learning toy store at Amazon.com. The new store covers the specialty and educational toy niche, the companies say. Imaginarium features specialty selections of learning toys as well as shopping tools to help parents and gift givers find the right educational toys for kids. The store will offer products from high quality and hard-to-find brands such as Learning Curve, BRIO and LeapFrog.

A key part of the Imaginarium site is the Learning Values System that originated in offline Imaginarium stores, which allows gift givers to search for toys based on seven specific skills that will be engaged when the child plays. Products are labeled with colored symbols, representing the seven skills: mathematical, musical, linguistic, visual to motor skills, cooperative play and independent play. The site’s toy finder feature allows shoppers to combine the Learning Values System search with tools that search the store by age, category or brand to help them find toys that fit a child’s needs.

The co-branded Imaginarium.com store will operate under the terms of the 10-year strategic alliance agreement announced in August 2000 by Toysrus.com and Amazon.com. Under the agreement, Imaginarium.com handles merchandising, planning, buying and inventory management of products, while Amazon manages the online site and shopping experience, including web site development, order fulfillment and customer service. Amazon also will store Imaginarium products at its distribution centers.