Europe Toy Market: Profile & Insights

The European Toy Market represents one of the largest Toy regions in the world.

The three biggest Toy markets in Europe are: Germany, France and the UK. Over the decades, these 3 big players in the Euro Toy trade have swapped positions in terms of the pecking order, but between them they represent a sizable chunk of the Toy & Game opportunity in Europe.

Germany has a very distinct, and in some ways, unusual Toy market. With several thousand independent Toy stores across Germany, with several major chain stores buying locally on a store by store basis and with a long-term trend of being quick to adopt the internet and other technologies (meaning that Amazon has a comparatively high market share), Germany offers a distinct opportunity. The caveat though is that you will need to be aware of German Toy culture, which is more focused on high quality products and materials, and more focused on facilitating child development with high levels of parental interaction.

The UK on the other hand has far fewer independent Toy stores, a few hundred stalwarts in fact, and market share is heavily biased in terms of Smyths Toys, Argos/Sainsburys and Amazon. Toy culture is far less high brow generally speaking - the UK usually has the highest percentage of Licensed Toys across developed economies. There are some local media and cultural sources, but entertainment content and culture from the USA is also eminent.

France is a strong, if a little quirky, Toy market. Whereas the mighty hypermarché Retailers like Carrefour, Leclerc and Auchan were once the major players in the market, their share has eroded somewhat over the years due to the rise of Amazon, but also due to the presence in the French Toy market of much revered Toy specialist chains including King Jouet and Jouet Club (incorporating La Grand Récre). France has her own entertainment content industry, but is also strongly influenced by Hollywood, just like the UK.

Before we end, we should also consider the fact that there are of course other countries in Europe. Bizarrely, there is some debate over how many countries can be counted in Europe, but most agree the number is at least 44. Not all of these represent large Toy markets, but there are a number of mid-sized Toy markets in Europe that you would likely not want to miss. Spain, Italy, the countries of Scandinavia, Benelux, Poland and more all offer significant Toy opportunities.

Our business is a Europe Toy Expert Consultancy. Do find out more about how to access the Toy business in Europe, check out our Consultancy services here: https://www.kidsbrandinsight.com/services

Toy Recruiters: How To Find A Good One

Check our our Toy recruiter services here: https://www.kidsbrandinsight.com/services

Here's the thing - most Toy recruiters are not from the world of Toys. They may have the requisite skills to be a recruiter, but what they don't normally have is a long track record of working in the Toy business and of being both connected to plenty of other Toy people as well as having the necessary insider knowledge of how this industry works to work out which candidates should be put forward to clients and which are likely not suited to the Job.

When we help Toy companies recruit highly qualified staff we are focused on first assessing the applicants and whether they are truly qualified based on having run Toy companies ourselves and knowing a). what experience, knowledge and results really matter b). Identifying any red flags that might make a candidate unsuitable.

So for example, most recruiters will be able to look at someone's Resume/CV and figure out that the applicant has never stayed in a Job for long enough to be a good fit with a Toy company looking to recruit someone for the long term. However, what takes more specialist knowledge is to look at which Retailers a candidate has worked with and fit that to what is required for a client's customer base in the Toy business.

Toy expert recruiters can also ask more in depth and informed decisions of candidates. For example, when recruiting a General Manager for a Toy company recently, we were able to ruthlessly analyse a hypothetical P&L the candidates submitted as part of the application, and then screen out and also prioritise candidates based on the remit from our client. You just don't get that level of service or knowledge from typical Toy recruiters.

Our approach to Toy recruitment can best be summed up as 'Toy people recruiting Toy people for Toy companies.'

If you want to experience the difference in working with a Toy category specialist recruitment company, find out more here: https://www.kidsbrandinsight.com/services

How To Find International Toy Distributors

Regardless of which country is your home, you have a greater opportunity to sell Toys outside your own country in the world outside. International Toy distributors can help you to access the huge opportunities for Export Toy sales. The Toy market in the USA is by far the world's biggest, but I would estimate that the US market drives just around, or maybe just a little more than one third of the Global market.

So therefore it is logical that wherever your head office is based, and whichever is your home market, that you should be exploiting the commercial opportunities offered by selling your products internationally. The challenge though is that it's a large, fragmented and complex world, and even very large long established companies don't have subsidiaries in every country. Most successful companies build a matrix of distributors to build retail coverage around the globe. So here are some tips to help you be more successful in finding international Toy distributors to sell your products overseas:

Be realistic about your expectations of the performance of the Distributor from the start. The reality of the business model under which International Toy Distributors operate is that they need to sell multiple product lines from multiple countries. Because they don't own the rights, what often happens is that they successfully launch product lines and if they are 'too successful' the brand owner often takes back the rights and uses the successful product line to launch a sales subsidiary newly set up in that market. Clearly distributors then need to minimise or at least reduce the risk of that happening by running multiple, and often many, product lines from an assortment of brand owners/manufacturers. As such, be aware that your distributor will never be focused on your brands and products like you are. Be realistic in your expectations of them accordingly.

Trade shows are a great place to meet International Toy Distributors. The biggest Toy trade shows attract thousands of distributors and wholesalers. If you want to grow your export sales you should at the very least be attending the Spielwarenmesse International Toy Fair every Jan/Feb held in Nuremberg, Germany. More than 60,000 visitors from around the world descend on this show to secure products to sell in their home markets and to sell their wares for distribution overseas.

Consider Sales Reps & Consultants to set up your Toy Distributor networks. It normally takes years to build relationships with companies from the Toy trade. But you can use international sales reps to help you access the market. Our company offers an Export Sales Consultancy service - you can find more details here: https://www.kidsbrandinsight.com/services

Search Toy Company Corporate Websites. Many Toy companies publish contact details for their international distributors on their websites. So if you search trade show exhibitor databases, you should get a list of a large number of companies, then if you go to their websites you will find quite a few of them list out who sells their products in various countries around the world. These distributors could become your commercial partners.