Tonga transforms erotic shop into candy store
Spring is in the air. At the same time, the Covid-19 restrictions, which have dominated our social life over the last two years, have been abolished. Enough reasons to express yourself cheerfully. So did HeaveNo7, a shop in the red-light district at the city center of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Since early March, it has had an eye-catching window display in joyful colors. It’s the result of a joint promotion of Tonga BV and the shop manager of HeaveNo7.
The store itself is strikingly positioned on the corner of two bustling Amsterdam streets. Upon entering, you imagine yourself in a design store. With beautiful white furniture in high gloss, adorned with the most fantastic sex toys, it exudes an unprecedented luxury. HeaveNo7 has a range of only the most luxurious products, but within all different price ranges. In the middle of the store, a display with the same bright colors as seen at the outside emerges. It’s all about Candy Shop, one of the recent new designer lines of Dream Toys – a private brand of Tonga BV.
HeaveNo7 is part of the erotic stores of a family-owned business. Second generation entrepreneur and shop owner Elizabeth van der Heide is just 23 years old. The creative marketing process is her doing, and she’s not finished yet.HeaveNo7 came up with its distinct ‘design your sex life’ – concept in 2011. They approach sexuality in an open and accessible way, with expertise, and thus contribute to breaking the taboo that sometimes still rests on it. “By discussing the wishes of our customers, we manage to provide them with the perfect sex toy. It is often a relief for our customers to talk about sex toys in a professional and fresh way. This gives a lot of satisfaction in return.” Elizabeth says.
“Many customers find it a relief to shop in our fresh and light store. By presenting sex products in a ‘normal’ environment, the sometimes felt discomfort is lifted. This makes customers feel at ease, and sex also becomes more discussable. Our cheerful and playful window makes people already more at ease when they pass the store, and therefore they are more likely to come inside and discover our services. In 5 to 10 years, I hope to be able to transform the store even more into a place where sexual health is central. Questions like how does the female and male body work and all about the different orgasms will be answered even more extensively through videos and other study materials. Perhaps we can conduct workshops on which sex toys are popular and why. On the basis of this information, the customer can come to us for the very latest products ‘to design their sex life’.”
Tonga BV has been a wholesaler and distributor of erotic products for decades. It’s a serious player in the field of sex toys, BDSM products, sexy clothing and lingerie throughout Europe. Tonga offers more than 50 leading brands to retail customers. For a part of its assortment, it has been granted the exclusive distribution rights for Europe. Aside from that, Tonga has a few designer brands of their own. One of them is Dream Toys, an appealing Dutch designer sex toys brand that is constantly trying to outdo itself with new catchy designer lines and thus trying to attract new target groups.Tonga doesn’t believe in a one-sided buyer and seller relationship. It believes in doing things together, helping each other, sharing information. “Our account managers are our antennas in the market. Their job is to see what the needs of our customers are. To see how we can create a win-win situation. Joint advertising and individual promotions are part of our tailor made solutions. What we did for Elizabeth from HeaveNo7 is a good example of this.” says Melanie de Jonge CEO of Tonga BV.
