While novelty toys are silly by nature, they work well in stores that make large profits from impulse sales. In retail, mainstream toys from large, well-known and popular brands like Lego, Little Tykes, Fisher Price, and Hasbro will always sell faster than others, but novelty toys are a consistent stream of revenue because they take advantage of pop-culture trends. This makes novelty toys a fantastic avenue for stocking the highly visible checkout area in your store. People are going to see these novelty items, get a good laugh from them, and purchase them without a second thought. Here are some common examples of novelty toys that are the perfect upsell.
Common Examples of Fun & Easy to Sell Novelty Toys
1. Stress Release Toys: stress release toys come in many forms and serve the purpose of relieving stress through physical exertion. This is a fancy way of saying that stress toys work by making you feel better when you squeeze them. These toys tend to sell well because they have two purposes, they allow you to release stress through the squeeze, but they also tend to make you laugh. Most stress release toys come with a humorous twist, for example, stress release squishy mesh balls will have color-changing slime that pops out in between the mesh barrier. When the ball pops through the mesh, it can resemble vibrant colors or messier, stomach-churning themes like blisters or bubonic plague. This gives you a chuckle and an initial, “oh, wow” type reaction, causing the impulse buy.
2.Humorous Squeeze Toys: much like their stress relieving counterparts, these toys differ only in their focus on humor, rather than any other aspect. They are almost always themed around pop culture or some manner of quick-witted joke. While these also come in a lot of form factors, keychains are a popular option for this type of toy. This is because keychains give you a way to carry the toy and attach it to another item, increasing the longevity of the toy itself and the joke that goes with it. It’s also way easier to show it off to someone else when it is attached to a backpack, a purse, a key ring, or the zipper on a beloved jacket.
Popular choices for the keychain squeeze toy include defecating animals like the unicorn poop keychain, which gives you a nice rainbow surprise when you squish it. This one can come in a blue, pink, purple, or white, making it great for kids and adults alike. For those with a more political sense of humor, the Donald Trump keychain puts a humorous twist on pop culture’s memes of the president. Just squish him and see his eyes pop out! Both of these keychains are perfect upsells because they make hilarious gag gifts.
3.Odd-combination Items: items that you would seldom think of as a singular unit, often make the best novelty items. Combining odd items doesn’t necessarily increase their usefulness in any meaningful capacity but attracts attention due to their compact size and general convenience of being 2 items in 1. Take the Mila Pen Fan for example, it is a high-quality roller pen that has a built-in battery-powered fan. This is a great novelty item to stock at checkout because it is compact, finger-safe, and gives you both a pen and a fan which are useful on their own. Perfect on hot days when you are doing a lot of running around for school, work, or on errands.
Another example of an odd-combination item that would sell well is the squeeze toy, pen combo. You get a little bit of laughter, stress relief, and a writing instrument, all in one. Fantastic as a gag gift, a stocking stuffer, or for those who like collecting unique but useful items.
Why use these types of novelty toys in your store? They are low-cost, hilarious to the customer, eye-catching, and often have on-trend themes.