China is the world’s largest toy producer, exporting a wide variety of toys, including plush toys, plastic toys, electric toys, model toys and educational toys. Although educational toys and electric toys have developed fastest in recent years, traditional plush toys are still the biggest sellers and manufacturers.
The vast majority of China’s export orders are from European and American countries. Among them, the US is the world’s largest toy consumer market. According to relevant data, in 2017, 28.8% of Chinese toys were exported to the US, while 80% of the US toy market was made in China. In addition, China is also the largest source of imports in the EU toy market, accounting for 85 percent of the MARKET share in the EU, according to statistics from eurostat. Among them, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands are the three eu countries that import the most toys, accounting for 27%, 16% and 10% of the total imports of the EU respectively.
Although electric toys have developed rapidly in recent years, parents in Europe and the United States still prefer to choose traditional toys for their children, such as Barbie dolls, which are always loved by little girls. More than a billion Barbie dolls have been sold since their creation in 1959. An 11-year-old American girl may have owned 10 Barbies, while her French counterpart has owned five.
A variety of plush animals, building blocks, puzzles and toys are also favored by parents and children in Europe and the United States. Plush toys have become the first choice for parents in Europe and the United States to choose toys for their children because of their realistic and lovely modeling, soft touch, convenient cleaning and high safety.
Although Chinese plush toys occupy a large share in the European and American markets, they mainly rely on low price advantages and processing trade, with meager profits. And with the plush toy overproduction and market saturation, resulting in fierce price competition, The living space of Chinese plush toy enterprises is increasingly narrow.
Chinese plush toys in the international market belong to the middle and low level of “cheap goods”, the product added value is not high. The vast majority of toy enterprises rely on incoming samples, incoming materials processing and production, more than 90% of the OEM production, that is, OEM production and OEM production. The product style and price are generally agreed by foreign distributors. Some even raw materials are shipped directly from abroad by distributors. Chinese enterprises are only responsible for organizing workers to produce according to the requirements of distributors to earn a little processing fee, so it causes the realistic dilemma of “selling more and earning less” for Chinese plush toys.
Post time: Oct-22-2021