Is there a promising future for the toy business?

Will the toy business be a promising field in the future? The author analyzes the various possibilities that can be explored in the toy field from the perspectives of market population and consumption frequency, combined with his own personal experience, and makes a simple investigation and assumptions on how to actually participate in the toy industry. It is suitable for friends who are interested in toys and e-commerce.

There is a business that I have been wanting to do in the past one or two years. I personally think it can make money continuously, and from a certain perspective, the risks are controllable.

Of course, this is just my personal analysis as a layman, and I hope to talk to more professional friends.

01 The toy market is very interesting

What I want to do is to develop the toy market. Of course I don’t manufacture and produce the toys myself, I just want to sell them.

1. The crowd is wide enough

When we mention toys, we think of children's toys. In fact, there is also a huge market for adult toys.

When it comes to cars, both children and adults have the desire to consume them, including models of airplanes, cars, etc.

2. Consumption frequency is high enough

Buying toys is like buying clothes. After buying the first one, you want to have the second and third, including action figures.

So I hope that everyone’s concept of toys is not limited to engineering vehicles.

3. Sufficient profit margin

Just like selling clothes, toy products also have obvious price differences, and the profit is behind it.

There are small toys and pendants that cost three or five yuan, as well as large toys that cost hundreds or even thousands of yuan.

4. Relatively low risk

What I am talking about here is a small-scale test, not the kind where you stockpile hundreds of thousands or millions of goods.

It means that if you wholesale for a few thousand dollars each time and sell one or two hundred products, the risk is still acceptable.

Even if it is sold at a low price in the end, the loss will not be too serious.

The possibility of trial and error is very high, so you will have a chance if you just take the goods out and sell them.

5. Visual prominence

Product is content, content is sales.

Toy products are particularly suitable for shooting videos, and are not picky about people or locations.

Because everyone is concerned about the design, functions, etc. of the product itself, the shooting is relatively simple and can directly attract consumers.

02 Buy toys every week

The main reason why I became interested in toys was because I had two small children at home.

My nephew has loved dinosaurs since he was a child. He likes all kinds of toys in the shape of dinosaurs, such as dinosaur-shaped cranes, excavators, soft-gel models, etc. There are at least hundreds of them at home.

In addition, my own children are almost obsessed with construction vehicles. There are more than a dozen excavators at home, in addition to other types of construction vehicles.

Not only myself, but also his aunt, grandparents and other elders would buy things for him from time to time.

So, you can think of toys as products for consumption by all ages.

In addition, high-frequency consumption of toys will last for at least 10 years in the childhood stage, that is, a child’s liking for and consumption of toys will continue before the third or fourth grade.

03 How do you plan to sell toys?

If you are a businessman yourself, then my suggestion is definitely to make short videos.

Traditional e-commerce channels are everywhere, and Pinduoduo is also very cheap. It is definitely difficult to get in, and it is not suitable for novices.

There is still great potential for short video channels, but we cannot do it blindly and must be accurate and direct.

First, if you want to make toys for adults, then find related products that are cool and have high unit prices.

Car model toys, electric cars, airplane toys, figures, celebrity cards, blind boxes, etc.

Secondly, the vertical accounts for children’s toys are much larger than those for adults, so even if you have many accounts, you just need to choose the right product.

Thirdly, it is recommended to directly produce hot-selling products, either single products or package products.

For example, some time ago the village chief saw an account selling toy cars. She used a shovel to weigh the cars and pack them in boxes for sale, which created a great visual effect.

Fourthly, you can also focus on a certain field, such as only selling construction vehicle toys, only selling dinosaur toys, only selling pretend kitchen toys, etc.

Fifth, toys are sold to children and products are sold to adults, so you have to be particularly careful in the copywriting and think about what parents care about.

Sixth, my son watches construction vehicle cartoons almost every day. I have found many such accounts on TikTok, and both the number of views and interactions are extremely high. I suggest that everyone pay special attention to this.

You can build content to attract users, and then convert and drive traffic.

Children's homemade skits about engineering vehicles

Simply selling products is a form of content, and creating content stories about homemade toys is also a form, and of course the requirements are much higher.

04 Setting up a stall to sell toys is more direct

If you want to quickly experience the money-making experience from wholesale to sales, I suggest you take the goods and set up a stall directly at the entrance of the community or near a small park.

15 yuan, 20 yuan, or 25 yuan per piece, as long as the price is reasonable.

I have seen product packages online before, selling for 30 yuan each, 50 yuan for two, or 100 yuan for four. You can pick any product package you want, and the toys are all very big.

I have also seen items for 20 yuan each or 50 yuan for three, and you can pick any of them at random. As long as you choose a good location, you can sell something.

Especially some toys that look very large, they cost fifty, sixty, seventy or eighty yuan in the mall, but in fact they only sell for 25 or 30 yuan at most.

Not long ago, my wife took our children to the mall and bought a police car for 50 yuan. I took a look on Pinduoduo and it was only 25 yuan including shipping, so the profit margin is still considerable.

In 2023, I plan to go to the offline market in Chenghai District of Shantou to have a look, for example, to find a reliable purchasing channel and take one or two hundred products home.

Try doing business first, even if it’s just to make 1,000 yuan, and then think about the subsequent business model.

You must remember that there are two important points in doing any business:

First, the risk is controllable

For example, if I take 2,000 yuan, losing all of it is not fatal, not to mention that it is not that serious.

The second is to make money immediately

Don't be too ambitious and think too much. Think about whether you can execute it immediately. First make the first $1, $5, or $10, and then think about other things.

Just like writing for public accounts, headlines, etc., even if it is only one cent, you should first feel whether you can really make money, and then consider optimization and amplification.

Of course, it is easy to say, but it is very important to choose the right toys when selling them.

If you select products based on a parent’s mindset, toys may not necessarily be sold, so go offline more often and make more comparisons, including the best-selling products online.

The village chief is just giving you a heads-up. This business is not high-end at all.

But the village chief will try to experience it by selling goods offline to get a feel for the tricks, and then share them with some mothers, ordinary office workers, and friends who want to work part-time.

Author: Shili Village, WeChat public account: Shili Village (shilipxl)

Original title: Come and sell toys to make money!