How UK Cuddly Toy Jellycat Brand Conquered China

Stella Huang purchased her first Jellycat soft toy during a time of job loss in the pandemic. Prompted by an acquaintance's passion for the British-designed creatures, her interest was truly captured upon seeing an adorable gingerbread house plushie circulating on a widely-used Chinese social media app.

While The Christmas holiday isn't traditionally observed across China, serving more as a retail occasion rather than a cultural tradition, the concept of gingerbread houses appealed to Stella. "It doesn't mean a lot to me... But I always like the look of gingerbread houses," she remarks. This led her to request a friend in Guangzhou to buy the item on her behalf.

That acquisition took place in 2021, right as Jellycat was on the cusp of achieving significant popularity in China and internationally. "People were anxious, and nobody knew what was going to happen," says Stella, who developed a habit of petting and squeezing her plushies to cope during that stressful time. Living in Beijing, a city with among the strictest lockdowns in the world, she spent a great deal of time at home.

Now aged 32 with a new job in sales manager in the tourism industry, Stella continues to grow her collection. Her collection has swelled to approximately 120 toys, representing an investment of roughly 36,000 yuan. "At my age, you have numerous matters you can't discuss with others... and the troubles we face are a lot more complicated than before," she notes reflectively. "The plushies help me regulate my feelings."

Initially designed for children, these soft toys have transformed into a global sensation, especially in China where a somewhat disillusioned youth demographic has been seeking solace in them for emotional support.

The Rise of Adult Toy Enthusiasts

Stella's Gingerbread house plushie belongs to their "Amuseable" series, a set of toys featuring small faces modelled after commonplace items, ranging from bathroom tissue and boiled eggs. These plushies are considered a key "standout success" that "resonate with a wide Gen-Z and millennial demographic" around the world, according to market observers.

Their growing appeal "may have something to do with a desire for companionship," suggest cultural commentators. While it's hard to say for sure whether the launch of the iconic Amuseable line back in 2018 was a deliberate strategy to target the young adult consumer, toy manufacturers increasingly need to find new markets due to declining fertility rates across numerous parts of the world.

Jellycat made its foray into the Chinese market as early as 2015. Having laid significant "foundation", the company was able to capture "the mood of the pandemic"—when people sought comfort during widespread uncertainty—capitalizing on its early success there, according to industry experts.

Jellycat's fame was also propelled by creative pop-up experiences. These retail activations often featured a menu of exclusive "culinary" themed items. Many enthusiasts would film their experience interacting and post the clips online.

Adaptation to local tastes has also been an essential approach. For instance, customers were able to buy plush interpretations of classic UK dishes such as fish and chips during a temporary shop in London. Conversely, products including teacup and teapot toys were featured at special stores in Beijing and Shanghai last year.

In 2024, the UK-based company's revenue reportedly rose significantly to reach an impressive sum. During the same timeframe, it sold an estimated $117 million in value of its products to Chinese consumers via major e-commerce platforms, per research estimates.

This expansion mirrors a broader boom in China's collectable-toy sector driven by young adults in search of emotional comfort and community. Overall sales from collectible items in China are projected to top 110 billion yuan this year, as per a 2024 analysis.

The remarkable popularity of brands like Labubu, elf-like dolls by domestic company Pop Mart, highlights the market's increasing appetite for collectable toys. This "kidult" trend is not unique to China; adults worldwide are starting to re-evaluate "outdated notions of what it means to be an adult," note cultural experts.

Particularly, especially the eggplant plushie—nicknamed "the big boss" in China—have also inspired a wave of online jokes, where users expressing frustrations about the pressures of adulthood. The "eggplant boss" hashtag is a space where fans sketch various emotive faces on their toy, showing it in various moods from drinking to forcing a smile.

As an illustration, a marketing professional from Hong Kong, Wendy Hui, personalized her eggplant toy by drawing dark circles under its eyes and placing spectacles on the toy. She then shared a picture online captioning it: "The mental state of employees on Monday." "I was working from home even during time off," the 30-something says. "I just wanted to express the level of exhaustion I was."

Thus, Jellycat has become an unexpected, light-hearted outlet for young Chinese to air their grievances about economic challenges, where hard work no longer ensure comparable rewards. Despite heavy online censorship, digital spaces remains a crucial, if not the only, space for these types of discussions.

Its regular launches of exclusive products and the discontinuation of certain lines—a strategy often called "scarcity marketing" in China—has also driven {