Stuffed animals. Photo: VCG/VCG via Getty Images
Retailers are expected to sell more small, squishy toys this holiday season amid increasing shipping costs and a shortage of shipping containers for bigger toys, CNN reports.
Why it matters: Global supply chain logjams have left retailers with empty shelves for customers looking to spend more money this holiday season, Axios' Joann Muller writes.
The big picture: The 20-foot and 40-foot containers used for overseas shipping have become more scarce and it's become more expensive to deliver goods to the U.S., per CNN.
By the numbers: The rate for a 40-foot container from Shanghai to Los Angeles would be $10,299, up 238% from last year, per CNN.
- Toymaker Basic Fun can fit about $250,000 worth of Mash'ems and Cutetitos —small, stuffed toys — in a container versus $120,000 worth of Tonka Trucks and Care Bears, per CNN.
- Yogibo, a furniture company, can fit 200,000 Squeezibo units and 15,000 Mates totaling nearly $2 million in a 40-foot container. The same container would fit just 2,500 blankets for $200,000 in sales.
What they're saying: "It's a simple case of how much sales volume fits in the container when containers are hard to come by," Basic Fun CEO Jay Foreman said.
- "We're going to pivot to smaller items" this holiday, Learning Express Toys owner Rick Derr said, according to CNN. "If you sell enough of them you can make up the [sales] that we lose not having the bigger items."