NPD Insight

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.

For 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.

Since the end of lockdown in mid-April, the collectibles market has enjoyed stronger growth than during the first quarter, increasing by over a third. Indeed, the first week of stores re-opening was the biggest week of the year for collectibles value so far this year. With just under 11m units sold since mid-April, the number of collectibles sold has nearly doubled. Collectibles in the Grocery channel grew by nearly a quarter, while it grew by +48% in the Specialist and Mixed channel. Overall, Grocery accounts for a bigger share of the category with 56%, while Specialist & Mixed accounts for 44%.

So, what has been driving the collectibles market growth? Strategic Trading Card Games is the number one gaining subclass so far in 2021. Adding over £10m to the market and growing value by triple digits, the success of this subclass is largely being driven by the Pokémon Trading Card SKUs, with the number one item in this subclass being the Pokémon Kanto Power Mini Tin Display. With children back to school combined with the collector element, there are other properties which are performing strongly, including 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 area. The UEFA Euro 2020 Tournament Edition Booster Pack, priced on average at 81p, was the number one fastest selling item for the month of July based on unit efficiency. Selling over 100k units, this item has flown off the shelves with a small distribution of 7%. It’s not just the Euro stickers which are continuing to sell fast; we’re also seeing the Minecraft Treasure Sticker Packs and SuperZings Rivals of Kaboom Power Machines in the top ten fastest selling items based on unit efficiency.

Newness has been really important in the rise of collectibles this year. We’ve seen many innovative 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.

With impulse purchasing returning, the shift in price point growth has swung to lower price points. Each price point below £4.99 has shown YOY growth. The 0-99p price point has shown the biggest YOY growth by +32%, with a total value of £9.8m. The next price point to show the biggest YOY growth is £3- £3.99 which has a value of £31m and grew by +18% YOY.

While collectibles are now in growth vs. 2020, the area is still down -11% vs. 2019, but with consumers buying more toys at the lower price point, there is every chance that we will see the collectibles market maintain the current positive trend as we head into Q4. We know that collectibles items are popular for pocket money spend and stocking fillers, so we hope this growth continues for the rest of the year.

Item Progression:

Playset Doll Accessories generated £1.5m in terms of value and accounted for 11% of Dolls share for the month of July. A key contributor to this value was the Polly Pocket World Sweet Treat Compact, which climbed 70 places this month and had a value of £241k, showing growth of +83% vs. Jun 2021. Increasing its distribution by +15% this month, this item is distributed well across 83% of weighted distribution in our data. Selling under 22k units with an average price of £11.03, this item ranks at 16% of total Playset Doll Accessories subclass for the month. Polly Pocket as an overall brand has performed phenomenally well, up +64% and is the No.1 fastest growing existing Doll property this month, now the No.3 property in Playset Dolls, behind L.O.L. Surprise! and Sylvanian Families.

With the licensing market now accounting for 27% of sales, the biggest share we’ve seen in the last four years, the way in which consumers are viewing content has become increasingly important. Typically, movies have been the biggest driver for licensed consumer products, but this has been in decline so far this year, as cinemas remained closed and traditional movie releases were limited. That trend could well change with a number of blockbuster cinematic releases due later this year, while some classic movie IPs such as Star Wars, Harry Potter and Spiderman have remained strong, even without movie releases. TV/DVD/Digital remains the biggest entertainment driver for Toys consumers products. Accounting for 16% of the total toys market, this entertainment category has become increasingly popular this year, with the likes of Barbie, Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig all in double digit growth. As consumers’ focus moved from the big screen to little screens, we have also seen Video Digital Games grow by +75% YOY, adding £18.5m to the market. Pokémon has added over £11m to this area, while Minecraft has added over +£3m. As well as these two key properties, the No.1 new property in the market, Lego Super Mario Brothers, also added an incremental +£3.5m. It's no surprise that sports has grown +89% so far this year. There has been a real push for children to get back into sporting activities, with further big sporting events due over the next couple of years. While the collectible Euros stickers have driven the majority of Sports sales so far in 2021, it is also worth pointing out that properties such as Monster Jam have also proven popular in this area.