How Can Chinese Toys Be Exported Through Cross-Border E-Commerce “Big Ships” In 2024?

 

According to the forecast of Research and Markets, an international research institution, the global toy market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of more than 4% from 2019 to 2025. The global toy market size is expected to increase by more than US$30 billion during the forecast period.

China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of toys. Competition in China’s domestic market is fierce, but the global market is vast and huge, and demand is strong. Exporting domestic products has become an inevitable trend.

China is by far the world’s largest toy exporter. China accounts for about 80% of U.S. imports of toys, games and sports necessities. Guangdong is my country’s largest toy production and export base. In 2020, about 70% of China’s toy exports came from Guangdong.

A large cargo container ship out to sea.

1.How can toys make a good start by taking advantage of the “big ship” of cross-border e-commerce?

Toys have always been a popular category on various e-commerce platforms. According to a Statista June report, the revenue of the global toys and games market is expected to reach US$382.47 billion in 2021. From 2022 to 2026, the market is expected to continue to maintain a high growth trend with an annual growth rate of 6.9%.

North America is still the world’s main toy market. According to statistics, the size of the U.S. toy market is close to 50 billion US dollars. In addition, Latin America is the fastest growing region in the toy category after North America and Europe.

According to estimates from the American Toy Association, up to 85% of toys currently sold in the United States are made in China; the number of toy companies in China with export records reached 14,573 in 2017. But among the top 30 toy brands in the world, none are from China. But on the other hand, Chinese toy merchants going overseas are also looking for opportunities to break through.

At present, the toy industry industry chain is mainly divided into three major links: product R&D and design, production and manufacturing, and brand marketing. The economic added value of different links is also different. Among them, R&D, design and brand marketing occupy the high end of the entire industrial chain, with the highest economic added value, while production and manufacturing are low added value links.

Domestically, Chinese toy manufacturers are still in the lower reaches of the global value chain. Although export companies are growing, they still lack well-known brands. However, for toys with original designs, cross-border sellers must apply for patent rights in time to avoid malicious registration.

Many toy companies have awakened their brand awareness and are transforming in time. They are developing in the direction of mid-to-high-end manufacturing and independent brands. They have made breakthroughs in toy brands and IP design, gradually established independent brands, and gradually moved from single processing and production to research and development. Transformation and upgrading in innovation and brand building.

Another best-selling way to go overseas with brands is IP and co-branding. Strong brands will incubate their own IP and drive sales of peripheral products through IP outsourcing. Another form is for brands to take advantage of the popularity of well-known IPs to produce related peripheral products to attract fan groups to buy, or for well-known brands to join forces with each other to produce products.

Chenghai, Shantou, is a well-known toy and gift production and export base at home and abroad. In recent years, Chenghai’s traditional toy industry has accelerated its transformation into a new pan-entertainment development model of “toys + animation + games + film and television”.

Will there be any new strategies or ideas for cross-border toy sellers in the future? Sunny, the cross-border manager of Jinshengfeng Toy Exhibition Hall, said that in recent years, toys in Chenghai, Shantou, have undergone some new changes in gameplay, and toys have been combined with animation, games, and movies.

The toy factory in Chenghai, Shantou, has begun to engage in cross-border B2C business, but many bosses believe that there are still certain risks in building cross-border e-commerce stores. Traditional foreign trade B2B orders are relatively more stable. But as time goes by, when new products leave the factory, they will conduct market research, consider consumer needs, and then develop products and actively promote them to B2C customers.

At present, more toy factories are still mainly engaged in OEM trade. But for protection such as product patents, we will also make arrangements. Nowadays, the second generation of factory workers born in the 80s, 90s and 00s have received higher education, and even after returning from studying abroad, they will pay more attention to the layout of intellectual property rights.

Will there be any new strategies or ideas for cross-border toy sellers in the future? Compared with North American and European markets, how should emerging markets, such as Southeast Asia and other markets, be viewed? Sunny believes that for the market, it depends on which market the factory’s products are suitable for.

In the past, it was mainly offline, but with the rise of cross-border e-commerce, and with the idea of ​​e-commerce, the factory will change the product to the requirements of e-commerce, and then promote it. Sometimes the factory will be deployed through the market, and sometimes it will be deployed from the user group, which is related to the product and the market demand of the user group.

In this regard, Amazon toy seller David also told Cross-Border Know that for small and medium-sized sellers, it is still too early to take the road of branding, and they need to work harder on operations, product design, and product selection.

David believes that there are two major difficulties that Chinese toys need to solve when going overseas:

①Intellectual property compliance. The toy industry is extremely prone to intellectual property issues.

Factory-type sellers should actively avoid infringement issues and apply for patents in a timely manner to protect intellectual property rights. For example, it is necessary to conduct a detailed investigation and search of the trademarks, patented technologies and designs involved in the products to understand the intellectual property rights of competitors in the same industry. If there is a risk of infringement, avoidance measures must be taken.

At the same time, in order to protect your own legitimate intellectual property rights, you can apply for trademark patents or intellectual property rights in the target market, and register with China Customs to achieve border protection of intellectual property rights. In addition, European and American countries, the major toy exporting countries, have very high audit and quality requirements for children’s toy products, so toy exports must also comply with the technical regulations and standards of the target market.

In addition to copyright issues, there are some other matters that need to be paid attention to when exporting toys. Sellers need to pay special attention to the standardization of toys, especially children’s toys. When exporting toys to the United States, you need to provide a CPSC certificate and ensure that the product has a tracking label.

In addition, most European and American countries attach great importance to the safety of toys, and the materials and structures need to be safe enough. For example, according to regulations on lead-containing toys, the lead content cannot exceed 100PPM. If a product is found to be defective, it may be detained, fined, or destroyed. Therefore, sellers need to strictly control product lines to ensure that product quality meets requirements.

②Brand marketing. By creating IP or cooperating with well-known IP, providing new core and spiritual value for toy products, thereby increasing product sales and brand premium space, is a brand marketing method that many toy brands choose when going overseas.

 

2.Social media marketing, a new traffic pool for toys overseas

The end of the year is approaching, and various festivals and hot spots are coming one after another. It is a good time for cross-border merchants to attract traffic through marketing. In addition to promotional activities and advertisements on various e-commerce platforms, overseas social media platforms will also become new traffic competition places for cross-border sellers.

There are many popular toys that have been popularized by TikTok, but when it comes to the most successful toy IP, the Squishmallow pillow toy is undoubtedly the one that has been popular for the longest time. As a popular toy IP in recent years, Squishmallow has become popular on TikTok since 2017.

A Squishmallow pillow toy that only costs 8 pounds is particularly eye-catching and was once hailed by many foreign media as this year’s “top Christmas toy”.

According to the British Guardian, sales of Squishmallow pillow toys in the UK increased by 300% in 2022, and they also won the title of “Toy of the Year” from the American Toy Foundation. By this summer, total sales of Squishmallows had doubled to more than £200 million.

Sales data of the U.S. toy industry released by market research organization NPD Group show that in the first four months of 2022, Squishmallows accounted for 8 of the top 15 best-selling products in the U.S. toy industry.

On the one hand, cross-border sellers can set up overseas media accounts by themselves, build brand images and attract product traffic through content publishing and fan interaction. When setting up an account, cross-border sellers may wish to start from product characteristics, establish account personas, and publish content on related topics. In addition, you should always pay attention to the hot spots on the platform. Adding keywords and hot spots can often bring you unexpected traffic.

On the other hand, cross-border sellers can also choose to cooperate with Internet celebrities to attract traffic to their products. The form of cooperation can also be diverse, it can be specialized product recommendations, or it can be soft advertising integrated into the content released by Internet celebrities.

Jack, a trendy TikTok seller, told Cross-Border Knows, “There are also many sellers on TikTok who use blind boxes to turn ordinary products into popular items snapped up by netizens, such as the previously popular crystal blind box live broadcast. Crystals are sold by many people on TikTok. , but when paired with the blind box live broadcast gameplay, it becomes particularly attractive. “The TikTok platform, which is famous for its new and unique products, is more suitable for trendy marketing.

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