A few months ago, a group of retailers and buyers from across the preschool world came together to judge the product categories of the Progressive Preschool Awards 2019. PPS spoke to Lucy Long, buying executive for Character.com, to find out how business has been over the past year.
“We haven’t seen any downward sales trends at all this year. In fact, we’ve seen an uplift, particularly with the big movies such as Toy Story 4 and Lion King. We’ve bought in new product and they were selling through extremely well with organic sales before we even had a chance to promote them.
We’re hoping that the Christmas boost will level out any losses we might see from Brexit. It’s a really busy time for us but we have some great new lines ready in preparation and we’re hoping to see a spike in sales from those.
In the lead-up to Christmas we’ll be focusing on the release of Frozen 2, with a whole range of new designs in the pipeline. We have made a real effort to make sure that this range is more design-led, widening the appeal for sightly older children who might not want an in-your-face licensed product.”
PICTURED: Lucy (right) and merchandise assistant Aimee Kelsey at the PPS Awards judging earlier this year.