I found an intriguing article on “What To Expect,” a website for expectant parents. The report “The Biggest Baby Registry Trends of 2022.” provides some crucial insights into how Gen Z parents differ from their Millennial predecessors..
The article reports on a survey of 1,852 pregnant women. According to the article, 75% of pregnant women create baby gift registries, so where they place them and what they choose to include in them tells us a great deal about how and where they plan to spend their or other peoples’ money on their children. They conducted a similar survey two years ago, and the resulting differences are significant.
Gen Z parents appear to take the world more seriously than their predecessors. They may see themselves as either less affluent or less optimistic. Their lists are trending towards the practical. Think diapers instead of a sound machine.
“84 percent are buying or registering for more essentials versus nice-to-haves.”
he Biggest Baby Registry Trends of 2022.”
One possible learning for the toy industry is that this new set of parents may be more interested in purchasing classic toys that have proven themselves over time. It also may be good news for toys that provide functional benefits like education.
On the party front, the number of baby showers is down from 87% to 74%. In addition,
one in three moms don’t feel comfortable asking others to buy gifts due to increasing prices, social unrest or the pandemic.
he Biggest Baby Registry Trends of 2022.”
The above should be a worrying trend for a toy industry that loves gift-giving parties. Will there be fewer birthday parties? Will parents discourage gift-giving to their children?
A growing percentage of parents are only creating a registry with one retailer, and that retailer is… Amazon.
83 percent of Gen Z respondents registered at Amazon. That’s a 25 percent increase from 2020, when 66 percent of respondents told us they used Amazon’s baby registry
he Biggest Baby Registry Trends of 2022.”
These leading indicators may be telling us to pay even more attention to Amazon and anticipate a drop-off in gift-giving and a trend towards essential, classic toys. What are your thoughts?
I do think there are some great ideas in here how to navigate future purchasing but one thing that I found interesting is Amazon. I used to re-sale toys on Amazon that I purchased at discount. Now one must be approved by the manufacturer in order to sell the items on Amazon. This is a complete 180 from when I started selling. I’m not sure when this change was made but it seems it will remove a lot of the small toy sellers from the Amazon marketplace. Clearly a move to benefit larger re-sellers.