Opinion
On stranger Yuletides: How shipping is shaping a very different holiday season this year From West Yorkshire to West Philadelpia, the global toy industry is feeling the impact of the continued shipping chaos and container price hikes. In a note to the international community, the Toy Association’s Steve Pasierb calls on unity and communication to best ride it out
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rguably, potential upsides and dramatic risks have never been greater for the business of toys, games, and play than they are today. Over the first half of 2021, the global play community saw toy sales rise an impressive 15 per cent over 2020 as families and playful adults continued to seek comfort and entertainment in toys amid the ongoing pandemic. Meanwhile, a storm of disruptions to supply chains worldwide – from holiday ocean shipments to raw
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materials, labour shortages, and trucking among others – are creating severe financial hardships and growing uncertainty as we head into our industry’s critical Q4 selling season. With the situation only expected to worsen and continue well into 2022, the U.S. Toy Association is hard at work to provide members with as many solutions and as much actionable information as possible to keep their businesses moving forward. To help companies stay on top of the latest developments and any potential
solutions in a seemingly stubborn situation, The Toy Association rolled out a new resource center providing a one-stop shop for information. Here, toy professionals can access new U.S. government and port updates, the Association’s topical ondemand business webinars exclusive to our members, and links to additional business tools to help track and plan shipments, as well as information on our ongoing shipping industry advocacy work at federal and international levels.
