Page 26 - Toy & Hobby Magazine Feb-Apr 2021

TREND UPDATE
offer an immersive and fun environment for buyers to preview thousands of toys with as little stress or boredom as can be possible when looking at so many products in a short space of time. But again, technology
is offering us a manageable (albeit inferior) alternative. Even 10 years ago it would
have been very difficult to share the magic of new toy products with buyers without face-to-face meetings. Now at least we have something. We will all breathe a collective sigh of relief when normal service resumes, but at least for now we have some way of presenting our new products for 2021.
ACCELERATING GROWTH
IN ONLINE RETAIL
One area of significant impact coming out of the pandemic is the acceleration in the shift from physical to online retail. Some of this acceleration is likely to fade away once societies around the world can re-open their physical retail en masse and without restriction, but there is no doubt that one of the major winners in toy retail so far due to the pandemic has been Amazon.
CONSUMER TRENDS
There’s no doubt 2020 was a challenging year for the retail sector, having to deal with the COVID pandemic, lockdowns, economic losses and then having to adjust to the new normal of ensuring businesses could
reopen and operate in a COVID-safe way. While everyone is hoping 2021 will be a lot brighter, the fact is COVID is not going away
quickly and many of these challenges will remain until a vaccine is properly rolled out.
Despite everything that was thrown at us, we had a strong finish to the year. Retail spending overall performed remarkably
“According to Australia Post, December was its biggest month in history with 52 million parcels delivered.”
well in the latter parts of 2020. In fact, according to Australia Post, December was its biggest month in history with 52 million parcels delivered - an almost 20% increase on the previous year.
The significant shift to online is no surprise, given the pre-COVID trend in this area and with so many
Undoubtedly Amazon will continue to be a major part of the market for 2021. Time will tell how much of the sales Amazon garnered from families in lockdown in 2020 will stay with them this year.
For the critically important and much-loved specialist toy retailers, 2020 was beyond tough in many ways. For those companies with advanced online offerings there has been some opportunity but compared with the online power of Amazon and even the mass market multi product retailers it was tough to compete. Here’s hoping 2021 is better for toy specialist retailers around the world.
Whatever happens this year, we should be thankful to be working in an industry which is fun for us and for millions of children who play with our products around the world. We should also be thankful above all for the resilience of the toy business, long may it last.
Steve Reece runs Kids Brand Insight, a consultancy to the toy and games business which has helped more than 100 toy and game companies build brands and increase export sales revenue. They have also delivered millions of manufacturing cost savings via new factory finding services.
| Publication of the Outlook 2021 with kind permission of Spielwarenmesse online magazine Spirit of Play.
of us confined to our homes, or choosing to work more flexibly. With the average online spend sitting at around 10% in 2020, the majority of retail spend still takes place in physical stores. However, we expect the growth will continue, with online purchases trending up towards 20% of all retail spending.
Pre and post-Christmas sales held up well, however the stories were different from state to state depending on how they’ve been affected by virus hot spots. For instance, Victorian spending was anecdotally down in the pre- Christmas sales and flat post-Christmas, while Western Australia and Queensland recorded strong growth, given the virus hadn’t been as prevalent in those parts of the country.
There were clear winners and losers in 2020 across the different retail categories. Spending on household goods is forecast to
be $375 million higher in the post-Christmas sales, while clothing, footwear, accessories and hospitality suffered losses - given people aren’t dressing up to go out to the social and cultural events they normally would. This year, we’d like to see discretionary retail thrive.
As we look to 2021, there’s still some nervousness in the air - in particular with
the end of the JobKeeper and JobSeeker schemes in March. They’ve played a key role in
stimulating the economy and can be credited with the robust retail spending during the pre and post-Christmas shopping period. We’re concerned about the impact to retail spending and consumer confidence when these schemes end, and we believe there should be a targeted extension, or additional assistance for some retailers on an as-needs basis. With restrictions continuing and further reaching in some areas, there are still many businesses critically affected by COVID restrictions.
The virus has resulted in a powerful shift in the way people do business. More people are choosing to work from home, and employers have embraced this hybrid approach to office life. It means that in the short to medium term,
26 TOY & HOBBY RETAILER FEBRUARY / MARCH / APRIL 2021
FLEUR BROWN
Australian Retailers Association head of industry affairs