79In the pure and innocent childhood, a doll, a race car, or a delicate and interesting little toy is enough to support the most precious little world in a child's heart.
It is precisely because toys are the "utopia" in children's hearts that, in order to fulfill their wishes,all kinds of toys are emerging one after another, which directlydrivesthe toy marketto develop steadily and rapidly.
Image source:Google
According tothe survey data from fortunebusinessinsights:
The global toy market is valued at $138.37 billion in 2026, and is expected to increase to $240.61 billion by 2034, with a compound annual growth rate of 7.16% over the years.
Image source:fortunebusinessinsights
From the macro environment, the toy segment market has indeed been making money, but many merchants have the same confusion:Why am I also selling toys, but it's not so easy to get orders, and even after the trend passes, I am left with a huge inventory?
This is becausethe toy market can be entered, but you must find the right brand positioning and cut in from a niche track to really grab market share.
Today,I will share with you a brand case worth referencing. When it comes to the toy track, we have to mentionLeyangJoyin.
In just a few years, it has grown from a rising brandto become a leading US toy player with annual sales of over $550 million. Next,let's break down how it quickly rose in the overseas market.
Image source:Google
Birth of the brand: Seizing the American need to "love festivals"
Back in2015, at that time China's cross-border e-commerce industryhadentered a period of rapid development. Three PhDs from prestigious universities in the US came up with an idea in Tempe, Arizona: to create a toy brand that truly fits American consumer habits. A year later,LeyangJoyin was officially established in Phoenix.
In order to gain a foothold in the US market,the team made a very pragmatic choice——not to follow the trend of hot toys, but to cut into the niche track of party supplies and holiday-themed toys.
Image source:Google
Americans' enthusiasm for holidays and parties is self-evident; almost every household decorates and holds gatherings for various holidays. But at that time, party toys on the market were either too expensive or too monotonous in style, making it hard to meet the needs of the masses.
Joyin seized this market gap, focusing on high cost-performance party sets and holiday-themed toys, coveringallthe holiday scenarios Americans love, such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, football season, Carnival, Easter, etc.
What really makes American consumers willing to pay isJoyin's insistence on localized R&D.
The team is deeply rooted in the US, designing products based entirely on local market demand, from children's aesthetic preferences and holiday customs to color matching, rather than simply copying domestic toys for sale.
It is this down-to-earth approach that has enabledJoyin to carve out its own space in the North American toy market crowded with giants.
Image source:Google
Channel combination: online platforms, offline supermarkets, and independent sites in between
In order to open up sales channels overseas,Joyin hasput a lot of effort intoits overseassales channels.
Online, the brand has enteredAmazon,Tuke Shop, Temu and other mainstream e-commerce platforms, relying on the stable traffic of the platforms to continuously generate orders.
At the same time,they have also built their own overseas independent site, accumulating users in their private domain, and combined withSEO optimization to improve search rankings, so that consumers with needs can find them at the first time.
In this way, there is no need to pay commissions tothird-partyplatforms for every order, and it also cultivates user brand loyalty.
Image source:Joyin
Offline channelsarealso not neglected.In chain supermarkets most frequented by Americans such as Target, Walmart, and Kroger, you can see Joyin's third-party brand sections.
It isby virtue ofthisonlineandoffline combinationthatthe brand's influence extends from the screen to the physical shelves, allowingmore and morepotential users to know and rememberJoyin.
It is reported that as early as2017, the brand's sales exceeded 1 million,establishing itself in the Amazon toy category; in2019, its total annual revenuesoared to $60 million, successfully entering the Top 10 toy brands on Amazon US site.
In 2020,due to the pandemic, demand for home parties exploded,Joyin's revenue directlysoared to $140 million,achieving doubled growth.
Now, the brand'sannual saleshaveexceeded $550 million,andhas maintainedover 30%annual high growth for consecutive years, firmly ranking in the TOP5 of Amazon US toy category,becoming an undisputed leading brand in China's toy export field.
Image source: Amazon
Multi-city collaboration in China supports an efficient supply chain
What many people don't know is that althoughJoyin's headquarters is in the US, its domestic layout is also solid.
Its main entity in China is Shanghai Leyang, established in2020. It holds 8 wholly-owned subsidiaries, distributed in Shantou, Changsha, Shenzhen, Yiwu and other cities besides Shanghai, each undertaking different functions.
The Shanghai company is responsible for design, procurement, quality inspection and user research; the Shenzhen company assists in procurement and product development; Shantou focuses on production control and quality assurance; Changsha is the operation hub,Tuke, Walmart, Temu, Target and other platform operation teams are stationed here; Yiwu relies on abundant supply channels and a mature logistics network, responsible for warehousing and global shipping.
It is precisely because these subsidiaries in China have clear division of labor and perform their duties, forming an efficient supply chain system, thatJoyin can ensure that inventory, quality control, and logistics do not fail during rapid expansion.
Image source:Google
Social media marketing:Holiday party "players" on Tuke
Of course, in the era of social media, if a brand wants to go viral and sell, it cannot do without social media marketing and communication.
Being influenced by short videos, falling in love with a certain toy or party decoration at first sight, and placing an order directly has become the most authentic shopping habit of consumers today.
In response,Joyin has also firmly seized this wave of traffic, deploying a large number of promotional actions on Tuke and other mainstream social platforms.
OnTuke, the brand operates its official account@JOYIN. As of now, it has gained 68,900 followers and 56,100 likes.
Image source:Tuke
The account's operation idea is very clear——closely follow holiday nodes.
Take this year's Easter as an example, the brand's main product is an Easter egg set. This product breaks the tradition of only giving candy for Easter by adding dinosaurs, race cars, slime clay, neon lights and other fun toys into the eggs, covering almost all the elements children love.
Image source:Tuke
Many recent marketing videos on the account revolve around this Easter egg set.
They use a structure of warm family party scenes+product unboxing display. The first half attracts clicks with a happy family scene, and the second half directly shows the rich content inside the eggs, letting users see the playability of the product at a glance.
The benefits of this approach are obvious. On the one hand, short videos can intuitively convey the fun of the product and stimulate users' desire to buy; on the other hand, posting content closely tied to holiday hotspots can quickly reach consumers with relevant needs in a short period of time, efficiently amplifying exposure, and ultimately feeding back into online and offline sales.
For small and medium-sized overseas brands with limited budgets, this precise holiday positioning strategy is much more cost-effective than blindly investing in ads, and is very worthy of reference.
Image source:Tuke
Conclusion
Looking back,Joyin's path to rise is very clear—finding the right niche, localized R&D, full-channel rollout, and precise social media traffic acquisition.
At present, the global toy track is still expanding, and consumer demand in North America, Europe, Southeast Asia and other regions is far from saturated.
For domestic enterprises, it's not too late to enter the market now. The key is to find those gaps ignored by the giants, such as party supplies for a specific holiday or decorative toys for a specific scenario, and then, likeJoyin, use product strength and channel strength to conquer this market.
It should be noted that in the face of fierce global competition, there is no need to pursue being big and comprehensive from the start. Enter from a small angle, do the product and channels well, and there are far more opportunities than you imagine.
