Case Study: The Entertainer achieves 100% peak-season uptime and rapid Click & Collect growth with Rackspace Technology

Leading British Toy Shop regards its strong partnership with Rackspace & Conexus as being a key factor in its unprecedented success

The Entertainer, the UK’s largest independent toy retailer (founded 1981 with 99 stores and 17,000 SKUs), needed a hosting and platform partner to scale its multi-channel strategy. As it expanded into personalised, content-rich and mobile‑friendly commerce and connected to partner sites, the incumbent infrastructure could not support seamless order processing, real-time stock control or Click and Collect services.

Working with Conexus, The Entertainer re‑platformed on the hybris multi‑channel suite and moved to a Rackspace Private Cloud, combining platform expertise with managed infrastructure. The result was robust, scalable commerce: 100% uptime through the Christmas peak, a 60% year‑on‑year sales increase at Christmas 2014, Click & Collect growth of 81.7% in the five weeks before Christmas, rapid 30‑minute in‑store/90‑minute home fulfilment, real‑time stock partitioning across stores and web, and the agility to capitalise on trends like the Loom Band craze.

The Entertainer

Ian Pulsford

Head of IT Services