While China is often touted in the headlines as a key manufacturing base for the global toy industry, toy sales in China have been booming and Chinese families have caught up with their international counterparts in terms of toys and consumption.
For the past few years, China has been an emerging consumer market for the toy industry. The toy industry continues to grow globally, with e-commerce sales in China soaring 6.5 percent in the first half of 2021, according to NPD Group.
But the digital sector slowed in the second half of the year, with growth in China's Toy e-commerce industry slowing to 7 percent as of October from the same period last year, according to Toy Book.
1. Sales of pre-school electronic toys soared by 56%
However, bluewater has learned that there is still hope for growth in some individual categories, such as the three leading supercategories: Infant infants/Toddlers /preschool; Outdoor and sports toys; Building block set.
The three categories accounted for 55.4 percent of China's total toy sales. In the infant/toddler/preschooler category, preschoolers toys saw the biggest increase of 19%. Digging deeper, sales of electronic toys for preschoolers soared 56 percent in the first 10 months of this year.
Second, dolls become the fastest growing super category
Dolls have become the fastest growing super category in China, especially dolls.
Pop Mart is a large blind box brand in China, accounting for 63% of the doll category's total sales, with annual growth of 105% to date. Blind box dolls are priced at a premium in China, ranging from $10 a doll to limited editions and co-productions that cost more than $100, NPD said.
Third, Ultraman is the most popular licensed toy in China
A 118% increase in trading cards drove a 30% increase in the Discovery and other toys super category, with 60% of the growth coming from science toys.
NPD pointed out that Kayou is a key force in the trading card category in the region, which has a Japanese Ultraman license and is selling very well. In the toy sector as a whole, Altman was the most popular licensed toy in China, accounting for 14.3 percent of total licensed toy sales.
NPD says licensed toys have a lot of potential in China because they are becoming as popular in China as they are in the rest of the world, especially in the exploration and other toys, action figures and block-building sets.
