From 1795 to Shopify: Building a £12M eCommerce Toy Brand, with Joe Jaques

About this episode

Joe Jaques discusses transforming a centuries-old games company into a modern eCommerce brand, focusing on educational toys and data-driven strategies.

Joe Jaques is the CEO at Jaques of London, inventors of croquet, ping pong and chess as we know them, and championing play as the foundation of learning. Founded in 1795 (yes over 200 years ago) Joe is the 8th generation toymaker to lead this family business, winning multiple awards in recent years. Now selling via their Shopify site and Amazon they are on track for £12million this year. In this episode, Joe shares how he transformed a centuries-old games company into a modern eCommerce brand. He talks about pivoting into educational toys, building a highly data-driven marketing strategy, and navigating the challenges of rapid growth, financial restructuring, and rebuilding the business stronger than before. Hit PLAY to hear: 🚀 How an 8th-generation family business reinvented itself as a £12M eCommerce brand 📊 Why obsessing over your data is the key to surviving rising CAC and scaling profitably 🧸 The surprising strategy behind pivoting from classic games to educational toys for under-5s 📦 How running their own warehouse in China gives Jakes of London a huge quality advantage 💥 The behind-the-scenes story of their COVID boom, debt crisis, and business rebuild 🤖 How Joe uses…

People in this episode

Host: Chloë Thomas

Guest: Joe Jaques

Topics covered

• eCommerce
• toy industry
• business transformation
• data-driven marketing
• educational toys
• family business
• growth challenges

Keywords

• eCommerce
• toys
• business growth
• data analysis
• educational play
• family business
• marketing strategy
• Shopify
• Amazon
• COVID impact

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Jaques of London, Shopify, Amazon

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