Walmart picks hot holiday toys
And the Hatchimal search begins anew
Parents who came up short hunting for a Hatchimal, the hottest toy of the last holiday season, are about to get a second chance.
A newer version of the toy egg that hatches a host of magical creatures is expected to be in demand again this year when it comes to gifts under the holiday tree, Walmart says in making its predictions for the top toy picks for 2017.
Hatchimals became hard to find last year by mid-December. Walmart says details on the new version are due Oct. 6.
And there’s more: Kids who like makeup will be able to create their own child-friendly nail polish with the Num Noms Nail Polish Maker. And “The Force” is likely to be with Star Wars toys once again with another film installment of the series due out before year’s end.
Walmart, the biggest toy retailer in the nation, based its list on the preferences of children ranging in age from 18 months to 12 years. The most popular are again expected to include toys based on favorite television and film characters or one that children could engage with, collect or hop on for a ride, said Anne Marie Kehoe, vice president of toys for Walmart U.S.
Ultimately, holiday shoppers will have more than 1,000 new toys from which to choose. “This list is just beginning,” Kehoe says.
A few of Walmart’s choices were in line with Amazon, which for the first time released its own top holiday toy picks last week. Both retailers includ-
ed the Cars 3 Ultimate Florida Speedway and Paw Patrol My Size Lookout Tower.
Walmart says about a quarter of its top toys will be exclusives. They include a sleigh, based on the animated feature Frozen, and the Adventure Force blaster that can propel darts 80 feet.
Walmart will again offer a holiday layaway program, which started Friday. Gift givers will need to put down $10 or 10% of their items’ overall price, compile a basket worth at least $50 and have until Dec. 11 to pay off their account. “We know many of our customers use it for a number of reasons,” Kehoe says.
The weeks leading into the winter holidays are typically the most lucrative part of the year for retailers, with many reaping as much as half of their annual revenue during those crucial months.
Despite many major retailers closing stores amid faltering sales, the industry saw its best holiday sales period in four years in 2016. Shoppers spent $270.1 billion — a 3.4% uptick — on purchases pegged to Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Christmas, retail research firm GlobalData said. That trend is expected to continue, with GlobalData forecasting a 2.3% uptick in spending this season to $279.1 billion.