It pays to stay classy.
Barbara Millicent Roberts has had a flawless complexion and winning smile for five decades, but her recent sales have not been so wrinkle-free. This holiday season, however, the skinny doll appears poised for a comeback.
When retailers anticipate demand for a toy, they stock up, and the number of tractor-trailer-size shipping containers filled with smiling Barbies from Mattel arriving at U.S. ports during the critical August-through-October retailer order window was up 6 percent this year, making Barbie the No. 1 most popular toy, according to Panjiva, a company that tracks imports on toys made overseas.
Only two other dolls made it onto Panjiva’s top 10 list: Mattel’s Monster High dolls, a line featuring teen goth characters inspired by monster movies and books, which comes in at No. 3 with 828 shipments; and Jakks Pacific’s Sofia the First doll, the title character in Disney’s new animated Disney series about a girl princess, at No. 7 with 364 shipments.
The spike in shipments reflects retailers’ confidence in Barbie after a rocky year for the doll.
“They stock known, reliable toys they feel confident will sell, and then they also place smaller bets on newer toys,” says Josh Green, CEO of Panjiva.
“Sofia the First is one of the biggest bets they’ve made in recent years.” And Barbie is another bet: Mattel reported four consecutive quarters of sales declines for Barbie — including a 12 percent in the second quarter — before sales of the iconic doll rose 3 percent in the third quarter.
This article originally appeared on MarketWatch.com.