Gifts / Sports & Toys

Throughout the development of my country's toy industry, export sales are the mainstay, and domestic sales are supplemented. However, due to the impact of the epidemic, orders from some toy companies and foundry factories have fallen sharply, and raw materials have risen. The situation is so serious that it is difficult to pay wages on time every month. In contrast, some big brands, such as Lego, Hasbro, and Mattel, still maintain resilient growth. In this context, we can't help but wonder, as the world's largest toy producer and exporter, how can local toy companies find a viable path?

STEAM toys, building blocks, and decompression toys are bullish

For toy companies, how to step on consumer demand and how to successfully cultivate hot-selling products? First of all, in terms of user needs, K12 toy audiences and consumer groups are more challenging than adults.

In the early education intelligent industry, this attribute is more obvious. "It is the separation of purchase and use, children use it for fun and fun, and parents buy learning and growth. Learning and growth focus on content, especially for Chinese parents, when buying early education machines, they pay more attention to practicality. Sex,” said Li Xin, founder of Huohuotu. Moreover, under the influence of the double reduction, the parents of the post-90s generation prefer early education intelligence and STEAM toys that can bring happiness, puzzle and exercise to their children, and develop their children's abilities.

According to the magic mirror market intelligence data, according to Tmall and Taobao platforms, in the first half of 2022, the market size of STEAM toys/teaching aids is 20 million, a year-on-year increase of 119.4%.

At the same time, according to the "2022 Toy Consumption Report" released by Jingdong Supermarket, it also shows that Guochao building blocks, IP tide play blind boxes, and programmable robot STEAM toys are the top three choices for gift giving. Among them, the sales of programmable STEAM toys in the first quarter increased by 282% year-on-year; the sales of Keeppley, the head brand of Guochao building blocks, increased by 157% year-on-year in March. Judging from the products on the list, Guochao building block brands Pinqi, Keeppley, and IP co-branded products such as Lego Harry Potter-Hogwarts Castle are favored by consumers.

In addition to educational toys, decompression toys are also gradually becoming popular in the domestic market. In the first half of 2022, the magic mirror market intelligence data shows that the market size of electronic/luminous/inflatable/tricky toys is 450 million, a year-on-year increase of 85.2%; In terms of categories, creative/tricky toys have the largest market share, with a market share of 270 million, a year-on-year increase of 239.6%. However, from the perspective of product pricing, creative/tricky toys are as low as 2 yuan and as high as tens of yuan, and the market price is stable.

In fact, the decompression toy was originally a toy to help children improve their attention, but with the continuous innovation of toy businesses in the category, the combination of novel shapes and trendy IP, the product has been loved by young consumer groups. Especially under the repeated influence of the epidemic, many young people play with decompression toys to relieve anxiety and tension, and share the fun of playing with toys through social media such as Douyin and Kuaishou, which further promotes the surge in the decompression toy market.

New channels, new opportunities, new bonuses

In recent years, more and more consumers are accustomed to online shopping, but more and more consumers are accustomed to the consumption scene before shopping online and go to offline physical stores to experience. Offline, toy consumption has obvious scene-based characteristics, and it is necessary to provide consumers with more direct interaction and experience. For example, Bruco's building block car is more popular with children offline, while online consumers tend to buy building block tables with practical functions and building block buckets with storage functions.

In addition to traditional channels such as supermarkets, shopping malls, and wholesale markets, there are more emerging sales channels for toys with obvious seasonality, such as plush toys and bubble machines. Through cooperation, they enter the chain boutique/department store channels, such as MINISO, X11, Kule Chaowan, 1983 and other channels.

Some plush toy companies have said that chain boutique/department store channels can account for 50% of the company's performance, but these channels require toy merchants to keep abreast of consumer preferences, to quickly respond to changes in market trends, and to catch up with trends. However, in the summer vacation, many parents use toys as a reward for their children after the end of the semester, including Beijing Bairong Toy Market, Hebei Baigou and other wholesale markets ushered in a small peak.

At the same time, while retaining traditional channels, many toy companies have deployed content e-commerce platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu, and more and more consumers are planting grass products through bloggers and placing orders for purchases. For example, on the Douyin platform, data from the "2021 White Paper on the Development of China's Toys and Baby Products Industry" shows that Douyin occupies 32.9% of the market share of live broadcast platforms selling toys, and many toy brands have also deployed Douyin. For example, Aofei has established nearly 20 accounts on Douyin. By the end of 2021, the Douyin account of “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf” has over 10 million followers. In March this year, Starlight Entertainment also launched a promotion business with Douyin;

On Kuaishou, the attention of mother and infant groups is increasing, and the market of maternal and infant toys on Kuaishou has also ushered in new development opportunities. According to the data of Gecko Look in 2021, among the early education/educational toys, its sub-category early education magnetic rod ranks top 1 with 38.9%. Compared with ordinary large-particle early education building blocks, the magnetism of the magnetic rod not only helps Children's more creative construction and imagination can also allow parents to quickly clean up scattered toys, killing two birds with one stone. The second is the model and electric category, which ranks TOP2 with 24.1% of market sales.