NPD Insight
To monitor what’s happening in the ever-changing toy market, NPD collects point-of-sale information from all major toy retailers. This information, combined with our analysts’ industry perspectives, delivers a comprehensive view of what’s selling and where. We also field over 12m consumer surveys annually to help industry leaders understand why consumers shop where they shop and why they buy what they buy. For more information visit www.npd.com. Follow NPD on Twitter @npdgroup.
Collectibles are back Moneeba looks at the collectibles category which is benefiting from retail reopening and children returning to school, as well as being boosted by the popularity of the Euros.
F
or the first seven months of the year, the collectibles market in the UK was worth £105m and has showed a significant growth of +19% vs. YTD July 2020. Collectibles now account for 12% of the total toy market spend, which is up two percentage points from where we were last year. Collectibles currently represents one in every five toys purchased. As non-essential stores opened in mid-April, we saw the resurgence of impulse purchasing. Coupled with children returning to school, this has seen the collectibles sector return to growth.
Yu-Gi-Oh cards, WWE cards and the new Slam Attax cards. With England getting further in the Euro Football Championships than ever before, the Euros gave a major boost to the Non-Strategic Trading Cards/ Collectible Stickers category, which has sold 6.4m units so far this year with a total value of £13.5m. The UEFA Euro 2020 Tournament Multiset by Panini was the number one fastest selling item for the month of July based on SKU efficiency, with only 23% distribution. It was also the number one new item in the collectibles
Moneeba Baloch
Account Manager, UK Toys, Euro Toys
new items come through across a range of different categories. Capitalising on the Sports theme, the L.O.L. Surprise! All Star B.B.s Sport Asst ranked as the number two new collectible item, generating £1.4m and selling over 122k units. The 5 Surprise Mini Brands Ball Asst has also been exceptionally popular this year, selling over 183k units. New items account for a 37% share of collectibles and have generated £38.8m so far this year.
Since the end of lockdown in mid-April, the collectibles market has enjoyed stronger growth than during the YTD July 2021 vs. 2020 first quarter, increasing by over a third. Indeed, the first week of stores Strategic Trading Card Games re-opening was the Non-Strategic Trading Cards/CollecMble SMckers biggest week of the year With impulse for collectibles value so Miscellaneous Toys purchasing far this year. With just TradiMonal Plush returning, the under 11m units sold shift in price point since mid-April, the AcMon Figure CollecMbles growth has swung number of collectibles Standard Building Sets to lower price sold has nearly doubled. points. Each price Playset Doll Accessories Collectibles in the point below £4.99 Grocery channel grew Fashion Dolls has shown YOY by nearly a quarter, CraR Kits growth. The 0-99p while it grew by +48% price point has in the Specialist and Reusable Compounds shown the biggest Mixed channel. Overall, £0 £3 £6 £9 £12 YOY growth by Grocery accounts for Millions Source: The NPD Group | Retail Tracking Service | UK | YTD Jul-21 +32%, with a total a bigger share of the value of £9.8m. The category with 56%, while 1 The NPD Group, Inc. | Proprietary and confidential next price point to show the biggest YOY growth is £3area. The UEFA Euro 2020 Tournament Edition Booster Specialist & Mixed accounts for 44%. £3.99 which has a value of £31m and grew by +18% YOY. Pack, priced on average at 81p, was the number one So, what has been driving the collectibles market fastest selling item for the month of July based on unit While collectibles are now in growth vs. 2020, the growth? Strategic Trading Card Games is the number efficiency. Selling over 100k units, this item has flown area is still down -11% vs. 2019, but with consumers one gaining subclass so far in 2021. Adding over £10m off the shelves with a small distribution of 7%. It’s not buying more toys at the lower price point, there is to the market and growing value by triple digits, the just the Euro stickers which are continuing to sell fast; every chance that we will see the collectibles market success of this subclass is largely being driven by we’re also seeing the Minecraft Treasure Sticker Packs maintain the current positive trend as we head into Q4. the Pokémon Trading Card SKUs, with the number and SuperZings Rivals of Kaboom Power Machines in We know that collectibles items are popular for pocket one item in this subclass being the Pokémon Kanto the top ten fastest selling items based on unit efficiency. money spend and stocking fillers, so we hope this Power Mini Tin Display. With children back to school
Top Gaining Collectibles Subclasses
combined with the collector element, there are other properties which are performing strongly, including
Newness has been really important in the rise of collectibles this year. We’ve seen many innovative
Toy World 34
growth continues for the rest of the year.