Christmas sales can make or break the toy market; NPD’s Melissa Symonds looks at how the early shopping message is likely to affect sales this year.

The last three months of the year traditionally account for the largest share of annual toy sales, with 46% of all toy value in 2020 and 38% of toy volume. So, it’s no surprise that the whole UK toy market focuses on Q4 performance and the lead up to Christmas each year. According to NPD, historically, each week in December is worth 6-7% of annual toy sales, the equivalent of a whole month of sales in the rest of the year, from January to September. The first three quarters of this year have seen a mixed performance.

“We’ve seen more volume purchased but flat value, driven by consumers returning to stores,” writes Melissa. “However, they are purchasing lower priced categories and items compared with their purchases in lockdown last year. As ongoing supply and delivery issues continue to make headlines in the UK (impacting not just the toy market), there is a strong message to consumers this year to shop early for Christmas to ensure the most wanted gifts are purchased. It will be interesting to see how this will impact sales over this critical period.”

Melissa goes on to examine in more detail whether consumers have heeded the call to make purchases early, and whether the trend for a focus on low value items is changing as we move towards the end of the year.

With more facts and figures from the latest NPD data, detail on which items have shown progression recently, plus a look at the fastest growing licences in toys, read the full article, which appeared in the November edition of Toy World here.