Smart toys and baby products are the most marketable categories
January 18, 2019
The HKTDC Hong Kong Toys & Games Fair, the HKTDC Hong Kong Baby Products Fair and the Hong Kong International Stationery Fair concluded after featuring close to 3,000 global exhibitors. Together with the HKTDC Hong Kong International Licensing Show, which closed on 9 Jan with over 400 exhibitors, the first four Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) fairs of 2019 attracted more than 130,000 buyers, an increase of 3.3% on last year.
Over 51,000 buyers attended the Toys & Games Fair, while about 34,000 and 21,800 buyers visited the Baby Products Fair and Stationery Fair respectively. In addition, more than 23,000 visitors attended the Licensing Show.
Benjamin Chau, Deputy Executive Director of the HKTDC, said the attendance for the four events showed that the sourcing sentiment of global buyers had not been affected by the Sino-United States trade friction, and they continue to see Hong Kong as an important international exhibition and sourcing hub.
“For the Toys & Games Fair, Baby Products Fair and Stationery Fair, we saw an increase in attendance by buyers from a number of different countries, including developed markets such as Australia, Germany and the United States, as well as emerging markets such as Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Poland, and Vietnam. The number of Mainland Chinese buyers recorded double-digit growth,” Mr Chau said. “The HKTDC will continue to provide an international trade and exchange platform for industry professionals to generate more business opportunities for all.”
Smart Products and Educational Toys in High Demand
This year’s fairs featured an assortment of new products, with those incorporating smart technologies being in high demand. These products include a variety of toys and games that incorporate virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies, as well as those enabled with mobile apps. Educational toys exploring children’s potential were also well received by buyers. A STREAM Toys Product Display — highlighting toys related to science, technology, robotics, engineering, arts and mathematics – showcased the latest product trends and drew a lot of interest from visitors.
Johnny Sze, Director & Vice General Manager, Eastcolight (Hong Kong) Limited, a Toys & Games Fair exhibitor, said that as STREAM toys gained popularity in Europe and Southeast Asia over the last two years, the sales of related products increased by 6 to 7% year- on- year. “We presented three new STREAM toys series at the Toys & Games Fair this year. We met with more buyers from Korea, Singapore and South Africa, and found a potential distributor in Indonesia on the first day of the fair.”
A representative from Ram Chander & Sons, a buyer from India, said that the Toys & Games Fair is an ideal platform to look for new products and learn about the latest product trends. The company met with more than 40 exhibitors supplying educational, creativity-boosting and science-based toys, and planned to complete orders worth US$50,000 with about 10 suppliers.
The highlighted zones in Toys & Games Fair were: Smart-Tech Toys, Pet Toys, Fireworks, Kidult World, STREAM Toys Product Display and there were 6 distinct Pavilions of Mainland China, Korea, Spain, Taiwan, United Kingdom, World of Toys (mostly European exhibitors).
Concurrent Baby Products and Stationery Fairs
The latest edition of the Baby Products Fair presented the Baby Tech zone and the newly-launched Maternity Products zone among others. Bang Toys from Brazil, with 20 years of experience sourcing and selling toys, visited the Baby Products Fair for the first time. Its Commercial Director Paulo de Tarso B. Hornos said that he found suitable products from three Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese suppliers. “I plan to spend US$500,000 buying a variety of baby products and toys including baby mats, toy telephones and instruments. The Hong Kong Baby Products Fair is an excellent sourcing platform where I can find many suppliers and suitable products,” he said.
Multiple thematic seminars and a conference were held during the fairs to facilitate industry exchange including “the Hong Kong Toys Industry Conference 2019”, “Smart Tech & DIY Toys – What’s New”, “Toy Safety & Regulations Updates”, “Toys Compliance, Testing & Certification”, “Insight into the Upcoming Stationery Trends” and “Digital Marketing: Innovation Key to Success”.
To encourage suppliers to leverage online-to-offline (O2O) promotional opportunities, the HKTDC has enhanced the sourcing function of its trade fair websites by launching the year-round “Exhibition Online” platform. In addition to featuring fair updates and the latest industry sourcing information, the platform also allows suppliers to stay connected with global buyers after the fairs, whereas buyers can easily source industry-specific products from dedicated fair websites.
