European and American Christmas market may face the "supply crisis" of Chinese toys

The BBC reported on November 17th that the Christmas toy market is facing the Chinese crisis. One afternoon in November, the streets of London have had a bit of chill in the autumn ambiguity. But the shopping area in this city is brightly lit, colorfully decorated, crowded with shopping crowds. There are more than a month before Christmas, but in the fantastic world of the retail season, the holiday season has arrived. For toy stores, this is the most important season of the year. However, this year, the risk of shortage of toys is higher than ever before. The reason is that China, where a large part of the toys sold in Europe and North America are made.

Most of China’s toy factories are located in the southern coastal areas such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Zhuhai. In the past, these factories have been relying on the supply of stable, inexpensive migrant workers who came from poor areas with less job opportunities. But now, this supply is gradually drying up. In order to promote the development of inland areas, Beijing has made large-scale investments there in recent years. With the rising wages in the Mainland and the emergence of more job opportunities, the labor force for migrant workers has gradually become less, forcing many plants in the south to slow down production.

Alan Simpson, the CEO of an independent toy retail city, said that this has caused headaches for their customers. “Three million Chinese workers did not return to the southern toy factory after the Spring Festival. This has an obvious impact on the supply of goods.” Says, "Last year, we were able to respond to customer demand in September and still have stock on the shelves at Christmas. This year, we need to place an order in July in order to keep the inventory up to date. So, if some funds are very popular, we simply cannot respond quickly enough. In the end, that would mean out of stock."

Why this year's toy supply may be difficult, there are other reasons, because the European, American and Chinese governments have implemented more stringent safety standards, the export of toys produced in China has become more expensive, which led to the closure of some factories. Earlier this year, China’s bad weather also slowed production.

“There will always be a shortage of supply during the Christmas period,” said Neil Saunders, a retail analyst at market research firm Verdict Research. “But this year the situation may get worse because the supply from China is not as high as it should be. We are very It's easy to find some hot-selling items out of stock." "This can be very dangerous, because the windows sell these products for a short period of time. If they are not put on the shelves in time, no one will make money from it." This is bad news for retailers, of course, for parents.