At a time when economic slowdown had dampened sales of other discretionary categories, the children’s hassle power and parental guilt seeks a high sale growth of toys In India. The domestic toy industry has also seen the flurry of new launches valued of $1.5 billion across cross points as they look to aggressively expand across tiers.
Pester-Power or ‘nag factor’ is the tendency of children for their inexorable request for advertised items. Parents often buy toys for their children because of their guilt of not spending much time with their children; these cases are generally seen in the double income households and the parents end up buying expensive toys and gifts for their children.
The average billing has been going up since last year with toy makers and brands increasing options and offering add-ons and accessories.
The global toy market worth Rs. 2-lakh-crore is dominated by China, which sells close to Rs. 1.4-lakh-crore worth of merchandise. On the other hand, the Indian Toy Segment is quite less branded and highly unbranded. Indian Toy Market was at a stand of $1.5 billion in 2018, registering a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 15.9% between the year 2011 and the year 2018, according to the market research firm IMARC. The market is set to cross $3.3 billion by 2024.
Toys R Us is still unbeatable in India, even after their stores shuttered in the USA due to bankruptcy. Adeeb Ahamed, managing director of Tablez India that launched Toys R Us in India, said it has seen a growth of 10% on the average bill value. “Structural changes in the economy like GST implementation ensure no tax evasion and new testing norms are helping consumers move from unorganized to organized players,” he said.
Toy store chains are just a handful and not like other multi-branded stores for apparel and lifestyle products. E-commerce companies are trying and helping the segment to grow even at the smaller parts of the country, despite their higher-price tags.
Ecommerce is taking products to Tier 2 towns like Indore, Amritsar, Bhubaneshwar and North-East as well.
No matter how the economy is performing the good news for Toys manufacturers is that they have a huge market to cater to inspite of the slowdown.