With the growing global awareness of environmental protection and the pursuit of sustainable lifestyles, sustainable toys are becoming a new trend, and the popularity of plush toys among them is on the rise. This trend can be explained in the following ways:
On April 10, the three-day 2024 Shenzhen Toy Fair came to a successful conclusion. During the exhibition, the organizers organized a number of forums and meetings to help manufacturers gain insight into the market development trend. 2024 Toy Marketing and Sustainable Development Forum and Chinese and Foreign Toy Awards Ceremony was successfully held on April 7 (the day before the exhibition), at which Li Shiyao, Director of New Media of Chinese and Foreign Toys Media Center, released the “2024 Chinese and Foreign Toys Trend Report”. Trend Report”. Below is a selection of the contents of the report, I hope to inspire friends in the industry.

MESH, the next wind mouth of children’s toys
Over the past few years, the children’s educational toy market has focused a lot of attention on STEAM toys. As an interdisciplinary educational concept, STEAM has gained popularity in cultivating children’s creativity, hands-on skills and thinking ability, and is bound to remain popular in the future.

The “Emotional Value” of Big Kids
While the mental health of children is a concern, the “emotional value” of adults cannot be ignored.
Traditionally, the default audience for toys has been children under the age of 14; now “big kids” over the age of 14 are becoming an important group of toy consumers. According to Circana statistics, in 2023, the sales value of “big kids” toys in Europe and the United States has risen to nearly 30% of the market share, which to a certain extent compensates for the impact of the decline in the number of newborn children on the consumption of toys around the world.

IP cooperation pan-entertainment
Looking at the global toy market, whether it is children’s toys, or trendy toys; whether it is the major toy giants, or domestic toy brands, have shown a trend of closer integration with IP. At present, the proportion of IP-authorized toys in the European and American markets has reached about 40%.

Mini compactization
With the unstable economic situation, consumers have become more rational and calm, and affordable and extremely cost-effective (e.g., multi-functional, applicable to a wide age span, and durable over the years) products will continue to be this year’s hotspots.

Diversification of sales channels
With the changing market trends, toy sales channels have evolved in recent years.
Offline, the traditional toy channels are mainly wholesale, supermarkets, specialty stores, school side stores, etc., the rise of “big kids” toys has led to the development of new diversified channels such as trendy stores, boutique department stores.