The ranking of hot search terms has risen by 220,000, and a 19-year-old boy is making money in this field

This is not a niche category, but there are still many people who have struck gold in this field.

Selling toys on Amazon at the age of 19: "It's not a problem to support myself"

When he was 17, Gary started doing e-commerce, but he was doing domestic e-commerce. "Later, I felt that the domestic e-commerce was too saturated and the profits were not that high, so I gradually lost interest."

When he was a sophomore ( 19 years old), Gary attended a lecture at school. The speaker was a senior who was engaged in the cross-border industry. It was the first time he learned about overseas e-commerce.

He was very proactive and continued to select products on domestic e-commerce platforms. He immediately registered an Amazon store to sell stress-relieving toys.

The picture is not the seller's product

In Gary's opinion, although the toy market in the United States is also competitive, especially since his toys do not have much technological content and are just low-priced products with no barriers to entry, the sales volume and profits are still much more considerable than those in the domestic market.

"In China, your toys must have a strong personalized design and you must always pay attention to the trends of Internet celebrities. However, the trends of Internet celebrities are fleeting. My products may be outdated before they are even finished. However, trends overseas do not change very quickly. As long as you do not make IP-related toys, the risk of infringement will not be very high."

Earlier, Gary found that water guns and bubble machines were very popular on Amazon, so he tried to put the two products on the shelves, but he almost went bankrupt. "These two products sold very well in the summer, but they were very easy to infringe on copyright. I almost stepped into the trap the first time I put them on the shelves. Fortunately, others reminded me and I hurriedly took them off the shelves. Later, I saw on social platforms that someone was found guilty of infringement of these two types of products. Not only did they take the products off the shelves, but they also paid tens of thousands of dollars in compensation."

After that, Gary chose not to follow the trend and sell popular products. He continued to sell products he was familiar with without any copyright risks. Soon, he made his first pot of gold on Amazon.

Having run a store on Amazon for more than two years, Gary is still focusing on decompression toys, supplemented by plush toys. Currently, his store can maintain an average sales level of 100 orders per day. During big promotions and peak seasons, the sales can reach 3 to 4 times the daily level, which is "more than enough to support myself . "

The ranking of related terms in hot searches soared by 220,000 places

Whether it is for children, adults, or pets, there is room for toys, and the search popularity of toys has remained high for a long time.

If you search for "toy" as the keyword on Amazon's US site , you will find that there are 2,170 related hot search terms on this site. In addition to some terms that are firmly at the top of the hot search list on the entire platform, the search popularity of many related terms is rising sharply, and some terms have even moved up nearly 230,000 places .

Google Trends data also shows that the global search popularity of "toy" has remained at a high level.

How big is the market size for toys?

Taking water guns , a product with high seasonal requirements , as an example, a manufacturer previously stated that during the hot selling season, the export volume of its products can reach 200,000 pieces per month, and the shipment volume of a single hot-selling model accounts for 70% .

Looking at bubble machines, which have relatively weak seasonal requirements, some manufacturers have said that they can achieve monthly exports of up to 160,000 pieces.

On Amazon, if you search for the keyword "toy" in the broad category, you will find that there are no less than 100,000 listings for sale on the platform , and many of the listings at the front of the results page have monthly sales of tens of thousands of pieces.

For example, looking at the sales volume in September:

A plush toy priced at $29.99 sold more than 30,000 pieces;

A stress relief toy priced at $8.7 sold over 60,000 units;

A $17.99 finger toy sold over 10,000 units;

A children's cleaning toy priced at $26.99 sold over 10,000 units and received nearly 50,000 reviews;

A plush speaker priced at $36.99 has sold over 10,000 units and received over 43,000 reviews;

A pet dog toy priced at $5.99 has sold over 30,000 units and received 30,000 reviews...

Toy listings with such performance are not uncommon on Amazon. As early as 2022, data from CB Insights indicated that Amazon's global online toy sales had exceeded US$133 billion .

Toys is not a niche market, especially for Chinese merchants going overseas.

There is a saying: Look to China for the world's toys. Statistics show that more than 80% of the world's toys are produced in China, and data from the General Administration of Customs shows that China's toy exports exceeded US$18 billion in the first half of this year.

In Chenghai, the "toy capital" covering an area of ​​more than 300 square kilometers, there are more than 10,000 toy companies with an annual output value of more than 50 billion yuan. Cross-border toy sellers have also taken root here and are expanding overseas by leveraging the industry's advantages.

The track is favorable, but the product is prone to failure?

Statista predicts that the global toy market will continue to develop steadily in the next 10 years. The global market revenue of this industry will reach US$130 billion in 2024 , with a compound annual growth rate of 2.49% during 2024-2028.

Under this favorable situation, Chinese sellers will also have more opportunities with the added advantages of the industry, but it is worth noting that such products are easily recalled, infringement incidents are frequent, and the rate of failure is not low.

Just recently, the European Toy Industry Association ( TIE) released an industry survey, revealing that many children's products on the e-commerce market have serious safety risks.

During the investigation, staff purchased more than 100 toys from 10 e-commerce platforms including Temu, Light In The Box, Amazon, Wish, Cdiscount, etc. The results showed that as many as 80% of the products did not meet EU safety standards .

For example, a toy containing small magnets may cause serious harm if swallowed, and an electronic drawing tablet may pose a fatal risk due to the detachment of small batteries.

“Many unbranded toys produced outside Europe and sold through e-commerce platforms such as Temu and Amazon are very dangerous for children , and these products are often shipped directly from China using low-cost postage. ”

The target is "Made in China". These products have been removed from various e-commerce platforms one after another, but TIE calls on the EU to strengthen supervision. If they fail to monitor, report or remove unsafe products, both platforms and sellers may face heavy fines.

Not long ago, the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission ( CCPC) warned that the simulated husky plush toys sold by third-party sellers on Temu had serious safety hazards and issued an emergency recall notice; the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recalled children's wooden board game toys, saying that small parts may break and pose a choking hazard to young children...

In addition to recalls, infringement cases in the toy category are also on the rise. Stress relief toys, plush toys, igloo educational toys, magnetic maze toys, dinosaur toys, building block toys, pet toys, gyroscopes, water guns, bubble machines, spider web launchers ... There have been cases of appearance patent infringement this year, and the plaintiffs are not limited to sellers at home and abroad.

The toy category has great potential, but the hidden risks are not small. You may not be able to "get rich overnight", but there is still a chance of "going bankrupt overnight", so sellers must be cautious when selecting products.

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