The UK’s largest toy retailer, The Entertainer, has announced plans to prioritise investment in its dropship programme as it withdraws from the Amazon platform.

Announcing the move in a LinkedIn post, Andrew Murphy OBE, the CEO of TEAL Group, which owns The Entertainer, said the business had invested in the programme over the last 18 months, focusing on “fair and equitable deals with product suppliers” to showcase their products on its website.

“We’ve been asking ourselves why, when drawing new customers to our website, we’re happy for customers to go to [a third-party] site to access our products when their seller rules are painful and rates so high,” he said. The result was that the toy retailer was making “a very meagre return” for its “considerable effort.”

Murphy said the lack of equity from Amazon meant, from the end of this trading year, The Entertainer would cease trading on the marketplace to focus on selling through its own ecommerce channel and its retail partners’ websites.

In an article in Toy World Magazine, written by publisher John Baulch, the retailer said the move reflected “a shift in its strategic approach to digital commerce and a desire to more directly influence the quality of customers’ online experience”.

The boost to dropship will see well over 4,000 new lines being added to the retailer’s online range, resulting in a threefold increase in dropship revenue.

“Our dropship expansion will accelerate as we enter 2026, with products and suppliers also having the opportunity to be ‘promoted’ to our core online and store ranges if sales levels, customer feedback and profitability justify it,” Malcolm Carter, Digital Director at The Entertainer, added.

“Over the last 18 months, we’ve been able to test and rapidly grow our dropship range, which has been a huge success. We’re determined to broaden our appeal to new customers whilst not cannibalising our existing range.”

Malcolm Carter, Digital Director, The Entertainer

The Entertainer also said dropshipping had enriched its customer offer this year, enabling it to expand into new brands and categories, including larger products and “niche Kidult items”.

Next year, it will also launch personalisation services across products, such as t-shirts, hoodies, wall art, homewares and furniture, in a bid to extend the appeal of its ranging further and create closer connections to customers.