Children’s Day shopping in South Korea is revealing a generational divide, with parents leaning toward practical gifts and grandparents gravitating toward collectibles that could become more valuable over time.
Local e-commerce platform Bungaejangter said Monday it analyzed customer search terms on its platform during the fourth week of April, when many people begin looking for gifts ahead of the May 5 holiday.
Searches for gifts such as the Nintendo Switch and Starbucks’ Toy Story merchandise, released last month in collaboration with the popular Disney franchise, surged among users in their 30s and 40s.
The average age of first-time fathers and mothers in Korea stood at 35.4 and 33.1, respectively, in the latest available data, suggesting many users in their 30s and 40s may have been looking for gifts for their children.
Among users in their 50s and 60s, an age group likely to include grandparents of young children, popular search terms included high-value collectibles such as Pokemon cards.
Trading cards from the popular franchise have surged in popularity and value because of their potential investment appeal.
Searches for some rare cards spiked by up to 64 times from the previous week.
“The general trend reveals that parents tend to buy new products that can be used practically, while grandparents tend to seek out rare items that children may want,” a company official said.
The platform also noted that the parent generation tended to search for items that carried personal connections to their own childhood.
The first movie in the Toy Story series was released in 1995, while Nintendo dominated the video game console market in the 1980s and 1990s, around the time many current parents were growing up.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
