In recent years, with the improvement of consumers’ awareness of scientific parenting and the increased demand for the quality of their children’s growth, the toy industry is experiencing unprecedented changes and leaps. Against the backdrop of generally improved family economic conditions, parents not only focus on the entertainment value of toys but also pay more attention to their educational, safety, and comprehensive developmental benefits for children.
Recently, Lin Kaizhe, the Business Director of Chan Mama’s Hangzhou branch, deciphered the toy industry of Tik Tok’s e-commerce platform from the perspectives of industry overview, sub-categories, and content ecology, using the data from June 2023 to May 2024 as the analytical time window.
Data description:
Study objects include all sub-categories under “Toys/Vehicle Toys/Educational Toys/Blocks/Models,” involving five main categories: “Toy Category,” “Vehicle Toy Category,” “Educational Toy Category,” “Block Category,” and “Model Category.”
Data sources: Data from TikTok e-commerce platform within the Chan magic cube product (mainly), Key Value Analytics
Industry Overview: The toy industry maintains steady growth, with domestic brands taking the lead, and the primary consumer demographic being young women in lower-tier cities
In recent years, the market size of the toy industry on Tik Tok’s e-commerce platform has shown an overall upward trend, although the growth rate has been slowing down with the development of the industry.
Overall, the industry’s annual compound growth rate (CAGR) from 2021 to 2024 (forecast) is 56%.
The compound annual growth rate in Tik Tok’s e-commerce market is 50% across all categories, so the toy industry exceeds the overall market in terms of growth.
Looking at individual milestones, the May 20th promotion (520) and the 2024 Good Products New Year’s Festival mark the annual sales peaks for the toy category on Tik Tok’s e-commerce platform. In May 2024, impacted by the pre-618 shopping festival, these two promotional periods contributed more than 50% of the market sales.
In terms of the competitive landscape, domestic brands (including international brands acquired by domestic companies) dominate the toy industry, with international brands showing a slight increase in GMV share.
Price-wise, toys priced between 0-30 yuan are the main supply and sales segment in the market, with goods in this price range contributing to the main sales volume, and those priced between 10-300 yuan contributing the main GMV.
However, despite the overall narrative of consumption downgrade, products priced above 1,000 yuan still show high potential for growth, and consumers’ willingness to spend on high-quality, expensive products has increased, leading to growth in both supply and demand for these high-priced segments.
Consumer profiles reveal a trend towards younger toy industry consumers, with those aged 18-23 showing the most significant increase in proportion, though the overall demographic remains those aged 24-40. Additionally, despite a slight increase, female consumers still dominate the market.
In terms of city distribution, with the improvement in shopping channels and logistics convenience in lower-tier cities, toy consumption is showing a trend of regional descent, with consumers in these cities becoming high-potential users.
Sub-categories: The puzzle and toy category lead in scale, the children’s vehicle category grows at a high speed with great potential.
Tik Tok e-commerce toy category shows a trend of slow growth in traditional toys and the gradual rise of new toys. Specifically, new toy categories such as MAT2405 amusement/education equipment/large facilities, electric/remote control/inertial/wind-up toys are on a high-growth and large-scale star track. Traditional toy categories such as outdoor sports/leisure/traditional toys and plush fabric toys are mature, albeit with a declining growth rate in scale, but still occupy a large market share.
Looking at the sub-categories, the puzzle and toy category stand out.
When analyzing data, a two-dimensional graph is usually drawn, selecting two dimensions: market size and year-on-year growth rate, to see the market size of the category and whether its growth rate can achieve rapid growth within a phase range.
It’s not hard to find that in 2024, the children’s vehicle category became one of the categories with the fastest growth rate, with a year-on-year growth of more than 74% in market size; while the puzzle category had the highest market share, reaching 54%. Specific to the children’s vehicle category, the sales of the children’s vehicle category have certain seasonal characteristics, with the peak sales in the industry from March to May each year, bicycles, and electric vehicles showing high scale and high growth characteristics.
The reason behind this is that from March to May is the spring season, and outdoor activities increase, including the Tomb Sweeping Day, Labor Day, and other holidays, which provide families with more travel time and opportunities. Children’s vehicles, as an effective assistant for family outings, show a growing trend in market demand, coupled with major promotional events like the 38 Good Things Festival and the 520 Gift Season, further promoting children’s vehicle sales growth.
In the children’s vehicle category, categories such as children’s electric vehicles and bicycles are on a high-growth and high-scale star track; twist cars, although smaller in market size, have a higher growth rate and are a category with potential.
From the perspective of brand dimension, within the MAT2405 Tik Tok e-commerce children’s vehicle category’s TOP brands, most of the listed brands are domestic brands, with only one international brand, consumers’ preference for domestic brands is relatively higher, and the leading brand Phoenix has a market share of 13.50%.
In addition, the average price of the TOP 15 brands is all above 100 yuan, with children’s bicycles, electric vehicles, scooters, and twist cars as the main products sold. Judging from the brand’s hot-selling products and top goods, bicycle and electric vehicle products perform better, consumers, while pursuing product functionality and entertainment, also focus on product safety and comfort; brands can also emphasize product safety guarantees in product development and marketing promotion besides product features.
As for the puzzle category, during the MAT2405 period, learning/experimenting/drawing stationery categories are on a high-growth and high-scale star track; the year-on-year growth rate of categories such as toddler crawling/learning to walk/fitness and children’s chess/class games is higher; the development of early education/intelligent toys and handicraft/making/creative DIY categories is more mature, with the growth rate slowing down but still occupying a large market share.
From the perspective of sales nodes, the puzzle category market is also affected by the 520 gift-giving scenario and the Spring Festival gifting. Each year’s 520 sales node and the 2024 Good Stuff New Year Goods Festival period both see a significant increase in GMV, among which, May 2024 was also affected by the overlap of 520 Good Gifts Season and the 618 pre-sale stage, contributing to more than 50% of market sales.
From the brand side, in the MAT2405 Tik Tok e-commerce puzzle category TOP brands, most of the listed brands are local brands, with main products sold including learning machines, point-reading machines, and early education machines with early education, puzzle, and learning functions.
Looking at the brand’s hot-selling products and top goods, the overall performance of educational puzzle products such as learning machines and early education machines is better than non-educational puzzle products, it can be seen that early education is a “heavy investment” track for brands, brands need to compete in product functionality, learning content, resource quality, and commodity pricing.
In addition, consumers pursuit products that offer educational value, functionality, safety, and entertainment; products that are comprehensive in function, rich in content, and rich in resources are more popular in the market.
Keywords:
1. International maternity and baby tradeshow dates
