From the Publisher

With less than two months to go before the big day, the toy community is gearing up for all the twists and turns which inevitably characterise a typical festive season. Will retailers have enough stock of the right lines? How will the supply chain cope with moving vast quantities of product from suppliers to retailers’ warehouse and stores in such a short window? Will retailers hold their nerve, or will some panic and start aggressively cutting prices if sales are falling behind expectations?

There are at least some encouraging early signs: I gather the UK toy market held up reasonably well in September, with Circana data rumoured to be on a par with last year, suggesting that the festive season got off to a respectable start. Talking to a few ad agencies recently, I gather that planned festive marketing campaigns are still very much ‘go’ – as one said, “no-one is panicking just yet.” Plus, there have been plenty of innovative PR activations and launch events arranged by toy companies to showcase new launches.

Retailers are doing their bit too. While we may not have the launch of the Argos catalogue to drive early sales anymore, lots of other specialist toy retailers are filling that gap with catalogues of their own – The Entertainer, Toymaster and Smyths have all launched their own catalogues in recent weeks. In addition, just about every individual retail operation has unveiled a Top Toys for Christmas list – and that’s even before the industry’s Dream Toys event presents the consensus choices of the industry’s leading retailers next week. Keep an eye on the Toy World website for news of the Dream Toys list as soon as it is announced.

And where does Amazon fit into the equation? Its Prime Big Deals Days took place in the middle of October – I wonder if that event move the dial for suppliers and retailers. I would love to hear feedback, as I don’t have an Amazon Prime membership, so I have absolutely no idea whether toys featured prominently in the deals and the communication around the campaign, or whether it centred around electronics and other categories. I understand Amazon believes that this new event is a big opportunity to kickstart Christmas shopping, so I am curious to know whether the reality lived up to the expectations – the first couple of toy people I spoke to about it didn’t seem to feel it had much impact at all but do let me know if you feel differently. There is also the question of whether this new event takes the edge off Black Friday, or whether the two events dovetail and complement each other? Again, initial supplier reaction suggests the former, but I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Retailers are certainly ramping up activity to encourage consumers to start Christmas shopping - now we need consumers to respond. Some will surely see the benefit of spreading the cost of their festive shopping by starting early, but I suspect that others will have to wait until their December pay cheque hits their account before heading to the shops. No matter what happens over the next few weeks, it’s important to remember that ‘it’s not over ‘til it’s over’ when it comes to Christmas sales.

Of course, in addition to the focus on the festive season, toy retailers will also have one eye on the post-Christmas period. The weeks following the Big Day provide a great opportunity not just for toy retailers to clear excess stock, but to give kids the opportunity to spend the money and vouchers they received. So, one of our product features this month looks at Q1 ranges, highlighting new lines and range extensions which will be hitting shelves from Boxing Day onwards.

Our other feature also covers the spring summer period, focusing specifically on Outdoor Toys. This year was very much a mixed bag for outdoor suppliers; despite the fact that it was apparently the eighth warmest summer on record (really!), we didn’t get many prolonged periods of warm, dry weather, especially in July and August during the school holidays. This unfortunately dampened sales in some quarters, and some suppliers we spoke to for this feature seemed quite downcast as a result. However, plenty of other outdoor companies have put 2023 well and truly behind them and are looking to next year with renewed optimism, with a host of new launches they’re excited about sharing. Those are the suppliers you will read all about in the feature, which starts on page 86. As several of them pointed out, products like scooters and bikes are used all year round by kids, come rain or shine – and who knows, maybe the climate will be a little kinder to the category next year.

We’ll be back next month as we lead into Toy Fair Season with a ‘first look’ at the Nuremberg Toy Fair, before our monster January issue hits desks early in January, previewing London Toy Fair and accompanies by a pull-out supplement covering Nuremberg. The next two months at Toy World Towers will see us spending every waking moment pulling that issue together and immersing ourselves in all the new and exciting launches coming your way next year. It’s a frantic, intense time – just as it is for all suppliers and retailers. And I doubt any of us would change a thing.