How tonies® uses pre-orders to launch early and sell more

Launch new products earlier, extend the selling window, and increase sell-through by making pre-orders a core part of major launches.

tonies® is the globally leading interactive audio platform for children with more than 10 million Tonieboxes and 134 million Tonies sold worldwide. Founded in 2014 by two fathers in Germany, the brand offers screen-free play through its interactive audio entertainment system that encourages imagination and storytelling. The brand continues to expand: Tonieboxes have been activated in more than 100 countries. 

In August 2025, tonies® launched the Toniebox 2, building on the success of their original product with expanded age certification, the launch of Tonieplay–a screen-free, interactive gaming experience–and new smart sleep features. In the period between product announcement and global availability, the team identified an opportunity to enable early customer engagement by offering pre-orders ahead of inventory availability, with the goal of building excitement, and gauging consumer interest prior to launch.  

Rather than waiting to begin sales until inventory had arrived, tonies® elected to pursue a pre-order strategy designed to extend the sales window and support launch planning.

Prior to the launch of the Toniebox 2, tonies® had explored offering pre-orders, but had not identified a solution that met its operational and customer experience requirements. Certain pre-order tools often presented limitations, including restricted authorization periods, operational complexity, and poor customer experiences. 

tonies® sought a platform capable of supporting pre-orders in a scalable, customer-friendly, and secure manner, including:  

• The ability to accept customer payments in advance of shipment, including beyond the shore authorization windows of 30 days, to enable product launches with fewer constraints.
• A clear, secure checkout experience for their customers, including the secure processing and storage of payment information.
• Efficient implementation without significant internal development resources.
• Support for multi-market and global launches.

Purple Dot delivered. 

Already used by 100+ brands, Purple Dot enabled tonies® to incorporate pre-orders into its broader go-to-market strategy, allowing the company to engage customers ahead of launch in a customer-friendly way to turn pre-orders into a reliable growth channel. 

Pre-orders without the pain

With Purple Dot, tonies® can offer products on pre-order weeks or months ahead of an official release date. Pre-orders are managed outside of the standard fulfillment workflow until inventory is available to ship, helping maintain warehouse organization and reduce operational complexity. 

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This flexibility, together with Purple Dot’s pre-order tooling, enables the tonies® team to:

• Begin selling earlier without being constrained to a single launch-date  
• Reduce customer confusion and related support inquiries, supporting the tonies® Customer Happiness team
• Build anticipation between pre-order and in-stock availability
• Offer early access benefits to pre-order customers (for example, certain Toniebox 2 pre-orders were shipped ahead of the general availability date)
• Access early sales and ordering data to help inform product marketing and launch communications

Pre-orders have become a meaningful component of tonies®’ go-to-market strategy, and are used for a significant portion of new product launches.

Capturing peak demand with high-hype launches

Pre-orders have proven particularly effective for larger, coordinated product launches tied to major cultural moments, such as movie releases, and licensed IP collaborations. 

For example, ahead of the premiere of the highly-anticipated film Zootopia 2, tonies® offered  the Disney Zootopia Tonie for pre-order approximately one month prior to the film’s release. While general availability began on the film’s premiere date, customer interest had already been established through pre-orders. 

A substantial portion of launch-day orders were attributable to pre-orders, demonstrating early customer engagement ahead of release. For customers, pre-orders provided an opportunity to secure a high-demand product in advance. For tonies®, pre-orders served as an indicator  of customer interest and supported launch planning during periods of heightened demand. 

With Purple Dot, tonies® has incorporated pre-orders as a core component of its go-to-market strategy. Pre-orders have enabled the team to begin selling earlier and extend the selling window ahead of product availability.  For select brand collaborations, this approach has supported customer engagement during periods of heightened cultural interest.  Internally, pre-orders have provided clearer early demand signals and a more structured backend process to support launch planning. From a customer experience perspective, pre-orders have offered customers the opportunity to secure high-demand products in advance, particularly around key seasonal moments such as the holidays.  In certain launches, customers also benefited from occasional early shipments, accompanied by clear order status communications through Purple Dot.

Overall, pre-orders have become an important tool for tonies® in supporting early engagement and launch execution. With several licensed IP collaborations planned for the coming year, (including a landmark partnership with Pokémon!), Purple Dot is expected to continue to support tonies®’ pre-order strategy as part of its broader product launch approach.

*For the Disney Zootopia Tonie launch in November of 2025, 87% of launch-day orders were processed via Purple Dot pre-order.

Selling earlier can transform your business. A pre-order strategy gives brands the selling flexibility they need to accelerate sales, never truly go out of stock, and optimize costs. We’re here to partner with you to help make your pre-order operations a strategic pillar towards your growth. Reach out to hello@getpurpledot.com