08/16/2020 - 11:41
- Clarín.com
- Economy
The sale of toys for Children's Day grew 1.3% year- on- year in quantity, according to a report by the Argentine Chamber of the Toy Industry (CAIJ). The increase, despite the pandemic, occurred, according to the report, thanks to the promotions and bank financing imposed for this date.
"Despite having had a very good performance in recent days both in the physical and online channels, sales barely managed to reach the levels of 2019 in the Children's Day season," the CAIJ said in a statement.
The chamber added that "the 30% discounts and fees with Banco Nación and Banco Ciudad cards, in addition to the increase in transactions with the Now 12 Program that allowed financing in 3, 6, 12 and 18 installments, helped boost sales of games and toys for Children's Day ".
The categories that grew the most in sales were board games and puzzles (+ 9.9%), early childhood (+ 3.8%), arts and crafts (+ 2.3%), blocks and inserts (+1, 6%) and shot (+1.5), and casualties were recorded in remote control games (-5.2%) and action figures (-2.2%).
The toy stores, open in advance of Children's Day. Photo Marcelo Carroll.
Regarding the most widely used means of payment, the Now 12 Program, extended and extended to online sales through coordination with the Ministry of Internal Trade, achieved transactions in more than 1,240 toy points of sale throughout the country, doubling their participation as a form of payment and accounting for 70% of credit card sales in installments.
In toy stores with an 80% share of imported items, the average ticket was around $ 2,800 pesos per unit while the average ticket per toy was $ 650.
The chamber observed that "as the online channel was not fully developed and the difficulties of remote operations, total sales could not be maximized due to restrictions in the AMBA , such as the prohibition of opening on Saturdays in CABA and the fact that having been authorized the entry of clients in some municipalities of the province of Buenos Aires ".
Likewise, the chamber indicated that "in the last few days sales have slowed down in towns that returned to Phase 1 in northern Argentine provinces."
The boys, in the toy stores, in the preview of Children's Day. Photo Marcelo Carroll.
In this context, toy sales this year had a positive balance , while for the same date last year they had registered a fall of 12%.
"After restarting activities in mid-July, production began using the entire production capacity with sanitary protocols" and "in this period the stocks left by the recession that began in 2018 were liquidated ."
The president of the CAIJ, Emmanuel Poletto , affirmed that "there are good expectations for the national industry for the end of the year season."
"The objective is to fully produce and expand the scale of production with a view to improving competitiveness to increase exports and recover the domestic market by promoting new forms of marketing in online channels," he concluded.
With information from Télam.