Egmont Toys: A Shopify + Odoo setup for international growth
Founded in 1994, Egmont Toys is a Belgian designer and distributor of children’s toys and gifts, with a strong international footprint. While Belgium is only a small part of their turnover, the brand has built a solid presence across Western Europe, with strong markets in countries like France and Germany.
More recently, Egmont Toys has also been expanding into fast-growing markets such as the United States, Costa Rica, Mexico, South Africa, Taiwan and China. As the company entered a new phase under the new owner Amaury Timmermans, the ambition was clear: modernise the business and build a digital foundation that could support future growth.
The challenge
When the company changed ownership, it quickly became clear that the existing software setup was holding the business back.
Egmont Toys was working on Zensoft, a legacy system that no longer matched the ambitions of a fast-growing international business. It lacked the flexibility, scalability and modern capabilities needed to support the company as it expanded into new markets.
For a business with complex purchasing cycles, international logistics and both B2B and B2C sales flows, the need for a stronger digital backbone was becoming urgent.
Amaury had a clear ambition: reduce manual work, create more operational visibility and gradually move towards a business that could automate much more of its day-to-day operations.
But as with many digital transformation projects, the first step wasn’t full automation, but building the right foundation.
Our approach
Starting with a robust operational core
To support Egmont Toys’ international operations, we implemented Odoo as the new central ERP system.
This included modules like sales, purchasing, inventory management, barcode scanning and a B2B webshop portal
On the B2C side, the existing Shopify store remained in place and was connected to the new Odoo environment, creating a setup where each system could focus on what it does best: Odoo in the back office, Shopify on the front end.
A product detail page on the Shopify store
This combination gave Egmont Toys a much more scalable and future-ready setup for both operational management and digital commerce.
Custom logic where it mattered
While much of the implementation focused on getting a clean and structured base in place, there were a few areas that required specific customisations.
Because Egmont Toys works internationally, we built custom export documentation for customs, tailored to their operational reality.
We also tackled a more specific stock challenge. Since the company only places major purchasing orders a few times per year, backorders often remained open for long periods. When stock eventually arrived, standard triggers could cause warehouse teams to start shipping immediately, even when customers no longer needed the order months later.
After initially exploring a more complex solution, we simplified the logic and built a much cleaner flow using a controlled backorder status system that gave the team better visibility and prevented unnecessary shipments. Automation doesn't always have to be complex!
Managing expectations around automation
One of the biggest challenges in this project was a strategic one.
With Egmont Toys, Amaury had a strong ambition around automation, AI and smart workflows. The long-term vision was clear: reduce as much manual interaction as possible.
But instead of over-engineering the system from day one, we focused on something more important first: building a simple, reliable operational foundation that the team could learn and grow with.
That balance between ambition and practicality became one of the key lessons of the project.
The result
Today, Egmont Toys has a much stronger digital foundation to support its international operations.
Where the previous setup was limiting growth, the company now works with a system that centralises operations and creates much more structure across purchasing, stock, sales and logistics.
The new setup gives the Egmont Toys team:
- better visibility across operations
- less dependency on manual work
- a stronger foundation for future automation
- a more scalable setup for international growth
Most importantly, the company now has a digital environment that matches its ambition. Today, and for the next phase in their ambition.
For international businesses like Egmont Toys, digital transformation is rarely about flashy features. We look at creating a system that works in the real world: across markets, warehouses and teams.
By combining Odoo and Shopify in a pragmatic way, we helped Egmont Toys build exactly that: the right foundation designed for international scale.
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