The toy sector globally sees a decline in sales, which however remain well above pre-Covid data. If, in fact, in 2023 toy sales in the twelve global markets (Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States) decreased by 7% compared to 2022 , mark a +17% compared to 2019. A sector that therefore seems healthy, at least from the data released by Assogiocattoli and collected by Circana on the 2023 toy market, even if it should be remembered the effect of inflation which tends to inflate the numbers , as the average sales price in 2023 increased 1% year over year and 18% compared to 2019.
The most requested games in Italy
Net of this clarification, in Italy the segment with the greatest turnover is that of children’s and pre-school toys, but the performance of games for older children is also good. The most requested are board games, puzzles and soft toys. These three types alone contribute approximately half of the market growth. Not only that, board games and puzzles are the category with the best increase in turnover compared to 2022. Animal, superhero and manga themed games are also selling like hotcakes, as well as collectible playing cards. On the podium of the best-selling brands we find, in order: Barbie, Marvel Universe and Pokémon.
Retail companies make up more than 74% of the toy industry
Having understood the market trend, it is natural to ask what are the characteristics of the companies operating in the toy sector in Italy and how punctual the companies in the sector are in payments. Let’s start by saying that the approximately 5,600 companies can be divided into three categories: toy retail trade, representing 74.3% of the market with 4,173 companies, toy wholesale trade, 14.4% of the total with 806 companies and toy industry and production, 11.3% of the total with 635 companies. These are companies that are geographically concentrated above all in the South and on the Islands (42.4%) and at regional level in Campania (18%), Lombardy (13.8%), Lazio (9.7%) and Sicily (9.5%). The other Italian regions do not reach 7% attendance.
The average payment times of companies in the toy sector
As for reliability, based on the Cribis Payment Study, in December 2023 punctual payers in the toy sector in Italy represented 36.3% of the total, while major late payers (payments more than 30 days late) were 11%. ,4%. Which means that the sector performs worse than the Italian average, where punctual payers are 41.1% and late payers are 9.6%. However, there are differences from one category to another. Punctual payers are, in fact, slightly higher than the Italian average for the toy industry and production (41.2%), but lower for the wholesale of toys (35.7%) and the retail trade of toys (35.6%). While as regards serious delays, it remains below the Italian average, with the retail trade of toys with payments after 30 days from the deadline at 12%, the industry and production of toys at 9.9% and the trade wholesale toys at 9.8%. On the other hand, the average payment times for the entire toy sector are 65 days, lower than the Italian average of 69 days.
Payment trends worsening for the toy sector
Punctuality unfortunately worsened in 2023 compared to the previous year, going from 38% in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 36.3% in the fourth quarter of 2023, even if the figure remains better than in the same period of 2021 (33.1%) and above all in 2020 (29.1%). Likewise, serious delays worsen compared to the previous year, going from 10% in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 11.4% in the same period of 2023, but remain lower than the fourth quarter of 2021 (14.2%) and 2020 ( 19.1%). All that remains is to hope for stabilization at an economic and geopolitical level so that the management of company credit and liquidity can also benefit from it in favor of greater company reliability. This and much more will be discussed during the presentation of the 2024 payments study, which will be held on May 28th.
