Gifts / Sports & Toys

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, in recent years, when toy manufacturers mention channel layout or cooperative customers, they always say "emerging channel product sales growth is more significant", "more willing to cooperate with emerging channels", "hope to contact more emerging channel customers"... So, what are emerging channels?

Emerging channel is a relatively concept. For example, e-commerce channels such as Taobao, Tmall, and JD are emerging channels compared with traditional channels such as wholesale markets, shopping malls, supermarkets, and school side stores, but they are traditional channels compared with short videos, social networking, and trendy e-commerce such as Tiktok, Pinduoduo, Xiaohongshu, and Dewu. From this, it can be seen that emerging channels do not refer to the emergence of new times, but rather to innovative characteristics of consumers, sales models, and sales products.

Based on feedback from manufacturers, conduct an inventory and organization of emerging channels that have received industry attention and recognition in recent years, and see what characteristics these channels have? Who is larger and developing faster?

1. Trendy department stores

Trendy department stores are also known as boutique department stores, which is a popular term in the industry. The general term for a company is "trendy retail collection brand" or "trendy collection store". This channel is generally open in shopping centers, tourist attractions, and other places, selling a variety of products, including washing and cleaning, beauty and skincare, daily use at home, parent-child mother and baby, kitchen supplies, clothing and bags, digital 3C, trendy toys, snacks and beverages, and other categories, which can basically meet the daily purchasing needs of consumers.

Compared with traditional department stores, trendy department stores emphasize the word "trend", and their products should reflect the trend, keep up with the trend, and meet the preferences of young consumers. From the perspective of toys, trendy department stores require products with good quality, high appearance, and prominent trendy elements, such as products that match IP and internet celebrities. On this basis, the product price should not be too high, and the characteristics of cost-effectiveness should be highlighted.

2. Trendy toy store

Trendy toy stores, also known as trendy toy collection stores, are commonly referred to in the industry as trendy toy stores. Compared to trendy department stores, the products of trendy toy stores are more focused, mainly focusing on toys, cultural and creative products, etc. Although both are toy sales stores, the positioning of trendy toy stores is different from traditional toy channels, and their target consumers will be older, mainly those aged 14 and above.

From a category perspective, the products sold by the trendy toy store include blind boxes, handmade toys, BJD dolls, assembly models, sculptures, cotton dolls, movable dolls, building blocks and other toy categories, as well as badges, keychains, pendants, headphone bags and other product categories. Regardless of the category, it fully embodies a characteristic, which is the IP attribute - including various content IPs and designer original IPs, and the vast majority of them are non younger IPs, with the majority of the audience being young people. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

3. Membership Supermarket

Supermarkets are very familiar channels in the industry, and there have been precedents for implementing a membership system in supermarkets. However, traditional supermarket membership is free, and the benefits include shopping points, which can be used as money or exchanged for goods. The full name of membership supermarket is a paid membership warehouse supermarket, which is a large-scale retail format that uses membership as the entry threshold for shopping. This business format has two significant characteristics, namely membership requires payment for purchase, and product display adopts warehouse style shelves.

Simply put, membership supermarkets have entry barriers, and not everyone can go shopping. For example, the annual membership card fee for Sam's Club is 260 yuan or 680 yuan; Metro AG members are 199 yuan/year, etc. Therefore, the consumer group targeted by membership supermarkets is no longer the general public, but rather the mid to high-end consumer group with the ability and willingness to pay for services. The differences in target consumer groups have led to stricter screening of products in membership supermarkets, placing greater emphasis on branded, genuine, and high-quality products, while also ensuring that product prices are not too high.

4. Discount store

In the past three years, the epidemic has heated up many business formats, and discount stores are one of them. The so-called discount store refers to a small supermarket format with simple decoration, limited services, and low product prices. This type of business is somewhat similar to the processing areas for expired and expired products in shopping malls or supermarkets in the past. The difference is that nowadays, discount stores are mostly developed in the form of brand chains, with unified brand names, similar decoration styles, and similar selection options, such as Good Special, Sweeping Cat, and Hi Special Shopping.

In addition, the product types of discount store are more diverse, not limited to food and drinks, but also many daily necessities, entertainment and leisure products, such as toys. For the toy industry, discount stores are not a channel for toy manufacturers to focus on layout and cooperation, but they are a recognized good place for inventory toys in the industry.

5. Convenience stores

When it comes to channels that have developed against the trend during the pandemic, convenience stores are definitely representative channels. Firstly, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2021 and 2022, among retail units above the designated size, convenience stores ranked first in terms of retail sales growth for two consecutive years, higher than supermarkets, department stores, specialty stores, and specialty stores.

Secondly, compared to the frequent reports of store closures from other channels, the number of convenience stores in China is rapidly increasing. According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, the China Chain Store Association recently announced the list of "2022 Top 100 Convenience Stores in China". The list shows that as of the end of last year, the top 10 convenience store brands had a total of 109485 stores, an increase of 6212 compared to 2021.

Specifically, Meiyijia has added 3840 new stores and Lawson has added 1175 new stores, making it the top two brands in terms of increased store count. Kunlun is hospitable, Tianfu, Furong Xingsheng, 7-ELEVEN, and there are over a hundred additional stores on top of the top. However, the number of stores in Yijie, Hongqi Chain, and Quanjia has decreased, as reported by Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation.

Convenience stores belong to small and beautiful, small and refined channels. Although each convenience store has a small area, its advantage lies in its large storefront and the ability to quickly distribute selected products, making it a key channel for toy manufacturers to layout.

6. Grab Baby Machine Shop

A baby grabbing machine store is a store that gathers multiple baby grabbing machines and provides baby grabbing services specifically for consumers. Unlike the previous natural operation mode of setting up baby grabbing machines, the baby grabbing machine store has professional personnel responsible for operation and maintenance, and also launches various activities to attract customers to the store.

The baby grabbing machine store is currently a very popular business format. From the perspective of location, the baby grabbing machine shops are mostly located in densely populated areas such as shopping malls, shopping centers, tourist attractions, etc., such as the first floor atrium, escalator exits, leisure and entertainment areas, etc. From the number of stores, there may be multiple different baby grabbing machine stores in the same mall. During a visit to Guangzhou Fashion Tianhe Square, a reporter from the All Media Center of Chinese and Foreign Toys saw that there is a toy grabbing machine store every other distance, and the two closest stores are even diagonally opposite. At the same time, Zhuowa Machine Store presents a brand chain development model, such as Jiajiale.

In terms of products provided, the baby catching machine used to mainly capture plush dolls, but now the baby catching machine shop provides toys of various categories and sizes, including building blocks, puzzles, girl dolls, building blocks, blind boxes, toy cars, Radio-controlled car, handmade toys, deformation toys, etc.

In addition to the six types of channels mentioned above, there are also IP derivative stores worth paying attention to, more accurately referred to as anime derivative stores, represented by Sakura Bookstore and JK Uniform Store. The products sold through these two channels are in line with the anime, so they are mainly animation derivative toys. In addition, nostalgic grocery stores and worry relieving grocery stores are also channels for toy sales, as reported by Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation.