The numbers are in and the five-day holiday weekend was one for the record books.
Whether you call it “Thanksgiving Weekend,” “The Turkey Five,” or “Cyber Week,” the five-day span from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday saw more than 200 million U.S. consumers turn out to shop according to the annual survey released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics.
That number is considered a big win, besting estimates by more than 18 million shoppers.
According to Adobe Analytics, consumers spent more than $38 billion dollars, $9.8 billion of which was spent on Black Friday. Salesforce and Mastercard SpendingPulse backed up the success of Black Friday, which, despite monthlong “Black Friday” promotions by some retailers, felt like a return to relevance.
On Cyber Monday, consumers logged on hard to rack up more than $12.8 billion in purchases — a 9.6% increase over last year.
“The five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday represents some of the busiest shopping days of the year and reflects the continued resilience of consumers and strength of the economy,” says NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. “Shoppers exceeded our expectations with a robust turnout. Retailers large and small were prepared to deliver safe, convenient, and affordable shopping experiences with the products and services consumers needed, and at great prices.”
So what does that mean for the toy department?
According to the NRF, 31% of U.S. consumers purchased toys over the weekend while Adobe noted that discounts on toys, which averaged 27%, weren’t quite as aggressive as the 34% seen last year.
Adobe Analytics singled out Barbie products by Mattel, Sony’s PlayStation 5, and Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III as being hot items on Thanksgiving Day while KidKraft playsets and ZURU’s 5 Surprise Mini Brands hit the radar on Black Friday.
Amazon says that its “extended” holiday period from November 17-27 was a record-breaker, coming in with the strongest results in company history for the 11 days ending Cyber Monday.
The e-commerce giant said that shoppers bought more than 1 billion items with more than 500 million items sold by independent sellers using Amazon’s marketplace platform. On its Prime Video platform, Warner Bros.’ Barbie: The Movie was a big winner over the weekend that could translate into product sales.
“There are many customers who are still checking off their shopping lists, and we are excited to announce that we will have millions more deals on a wide selection of products to come, with new deals dropping every day through December 24, along with fast, convenient delivery options,” says Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores.
The retailer also dangled a carrot that select Hasbro toys will see discounts of up to 30% in the coming weeks.
Add to Cart Heart
At Walmart, the crew in Bentonville is gearing up to release a 23-part shoppable romantic comedy called Add to Heart. A new spin on the “rom-com” genre dubbed “Romantic Commerce,” the series will stream in snippets across TikTok, Roku, YouTube, and Walmart’s own social channels beginning Dec. 2.
Add to Heart follows New York designer Jessica as she returns to her hometown for the holidays. After losing her luggage on her travels, she visits her local Walmart, where she bumps into an old flame Javi. Between the town festivities, decorating, and shopping, they start to rekindle their spark.
While there’s no word yet on which toys or games will be among the 330 shoppable products, one scene in the trailer features a dance number in the doll aisle among IMC Toys’ Cry Babies.
More Tough Comps Ahead
Despite the success of the holiday weekend for retail in general, there is still quite a bit of uncertainty within the toy industry. Inventory levels remain pretty normal across the board, but shelves are still packed in most cases. Some store visits to big boxes near my Illinois home revealed strong foot traffic but no indicators of any massive hits over the weekend. If anything, some it appears that some deeper discounts may have rolled out online today.
As we’ve previously reported in the pages of The Toy Book in recent weeks, nearly every publicly traded toy company cautioned a soft holiday season, largely due to economic concerns. If anything, this may be the last year that the industry runs up against tough, pandemic-skewed comps as the world returns to pre-pandemic consumer habits. Still, according to data from Circana, the industry should still be tracking higher than it was back in 2019, which means a growth trajectory is present absent the weird years.
Stay tuned for more updates as the battle for the holidays rages on!
