I have written here previously about the tremendous success we have been having with the interactive story book, card and toy range from Hallmark. They and interactive products from other suppliers, are now a vital part of the card and gift mix in-store with excellent year on year growth.
Bloomberg recently published a story about US toymaker Hasbro refreshing it’s popular Furby product into an interactive toy. They are targeting Furby players from decades ago with a retro pitch and today’s kids with an interactive pitch.
A good gift department in any newsagency today has an excellent mix of interactive toys and gifts, taking the product beyond the static of yesteryear and somehow interacting with people as well as devices such as the iPad, iPod and iPhone. These toys that interact with sound from other devices are hot this year in Australia from what the sales data I can see. We are gearing up for Christmas by expanding the range.
The Merry-Oke product from Hallmark was a top-seller last year. While we expected good sales this year we did not anticipate the very strong early interest. Indeed, sales have been so strong we have ordered more.