Toy sales up 36.5% at E-mart, 20% at Lotte Mart in September
Pokémon card frenzy drives foot traffic to brick-and-mortar stores
"We will notify you through Instagram and the front-entrance bulletin board when the 30th-anniversary Pokémon cards arrive in store."
E-mart and Lotte Mart have been posting restocking alerts on social media as consumer demand for limited-edition cards intensifies. Hypermarkets are increasingly leaning on character merchandise and collectible toys to draw shoppers through their doors.
On restocking days, customers line up outside stores from the early hours of the morning in what has become known as an "open run," industry sources said Monday. Character products once considered children's toys have taken hold as collectibles among adults, shifting the age profile of buyers at hypermarket toy sections.
The release of a limited-edition 30th-anniversary Pokémon card pack on Sept. 15 stoked the frenzy further. The pack contains 120 cards and retails for 69,900 won ($52). On KREAM, a platform for limited-edition trading, the pack was changing hands at 118,000 won as of Monday, topping the platform's fastest-rising rankings. Rare individual cards have fetched resale prices running into the tens of millions of won.
Demand is being driven not only by collectors but also by buyers seeking resale profits. The Pokémon card hashtag on Instagram has surpassed 88,000 posts, with steady activity around card-cracking and card-shop content as well.
The enthusiasm is showing up in sales figures. E-mart's toy sales in September rose 36.5 percent from a year earlier, with Pokémon cards particularly prominent. Sales in the "boys' character" product category — which includes Pokémon — surged 69.2 percent over the same period.
A shift in buyer demographics is also striking. Breaking down E-mart's boys' character category sales by age group, purchases by shoppers in their 20s jumped 193.8 percent year on year. Those in their 30s and 40s rose 45.2 percent and 79.8 percent, respectively. Character merchandise is pulling in adult collectors as a new consumer base.
Lotte Mart's Toys"R"Us section tells a similar story. Sales in September climbed about 20 percent from a year earlier. The "card games" category, which includes Pokémon cards, surged 224.1 percent, while the "Japanese character toys" category — home to Pokémon figures — rose 144.5 percent.
The character merchandise market continues to expand. According to the Korea Creative Content Agency, the domestic character intellectual property market grew from 13.6 trillion won in 2020 to 16.2 trillion won last year, and is estimated to reach 21 trillion won this year.
"Character products are meaningful for physical stores because they can drive purpose-driven visits — customers coming specifically to buy a particular item," an industry official said. "Retailers will keep working to capture the attention of younger consumers by focusing on limited-edition releases and popular character merchandise."
siuu@heraldcorp.com
