For many retailers and manufacturers, Christmas is a make or break event which can decide their annual results one way or the other. This is especially true in the toys and games market area and levels of sales will be closely watched in the period before Christmas in order to try and estimate which toys will sell well.
Right now, based on current sales, I think it’s a safe bet to say that Zhu Zhu pets will be a huge seller this Christmas. If you haven’t heard of them yet, Zhu Zhu pets are a team of small, cute and furry motorized hamsters. They interact both with the other hamsters and also the kids using sensors and a primitive form of artificial intelligence. In addition to the hamsters themselves, there are a large number of accessories and toys available, which are sold as either sets or as additional items.
These toys are aimed at children in the four to ten year old age group and have actually been around for awhile. They previously existed under the name of Go Go Pets – and it is still possible to find some units with the old packaging. After a trial launch in the Phoenix area, Go Go Pets changed their name to Zhu Zhu Pets and were launched nationally at the end of August 2009.
Since then they have been flying off the shelves. It seems as if kids just can’t get enough of them. They love the interactivity and the ability to reconfigure the tubes, tracks and toys of the hamster’s environment.
In early October, the Zhu Zhu Hamsters - along with their various accessories - occupied no fewer than eight out of the top ten slots in Amazon’s Toys and Games bestseller list. Going further down the list, the Zhu Zhu brand occupied fifteen of the top twenty five slots – beating perennial favorites, like Lego for instance.
It seems clear that the Zhu Zhu Pets are already achieving stellar sales figures and seem likely to be one of the best, if not the best, selling toys of 2009. The relaunch and rebranding at the tail end of August looks to have been perfectly timed in order to allow them to build brand recognition and momentum in time for the Christmas gift giving bonanza.
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