Facing declining toy sales across the UK, a family-run shop finds unexpected growth on Temu's marketplace, doubling daily orders within three months.
Mark Crowhurst noticed sales had slowed significantly for his online toy business, Mcslots. The Cornwall-based retailer, which Crowhurst runs with help from his wife and daughters, specializes in selling model cars and action figures and has been operating for 12 years.
Mcslots carries about 3,900 products and reaches customers on its own website, as well as on various e-commerce platforms. But over the past year, Crowhurst, 59, saw sales dipping across all platforms, as families tightened their belts amid economic uncertainty. On some platforms, sales had stalled.
In April, he uploaded a small selection of his toys to Temu, a newer marketplace with some 13 million monthly active users in the UK. The results were immediate. Within 48 hours of listing his products, orders began to roll in. Within a quarter, his daily orders were up more than 40%, and Temu accounted for half of his total sales.
“Temu is the savior of our business,” said Crowhurst. “Without it, we would have had a tough summer.”
The turnaround was all the more remarkable considering the state of the industry. In 2024, UK toy sales declined 3.7% over the previous year’s value. Industry analysts Circana noted that nearly half of toys sold were also priced under £15.
From Asda to Action Figures
Crowhurst’s journey to toy retail began somewhat by chance. While working retail at Asda, he was operating an online store carrying different paraphernalia. When a friend asked him to help carry a collection of die-cast cars from once-dominant UK brand Corgi Toys, the success of finding that niche gave birth to Mcslots.
Since then, Mcslots has reached collectors beyond the UK’s shores, to those in countries including Australia and Japan. But in the past year, he said sales slowed sharply on some platforms.
Mcslots’ Revival
The turning point came when Mcslots joined Temu, said Crowhurst.
Crowhurst added that he’s found the level of seller support to be a differentiator in his experience on Temu. He recalled an incident when a customer sent feedback that the sizing of an item listed was hard to understand. The Temu manager responsible for Mcslots’ account stepped in quickly to refine the product description to help make it clearer to shoppers. “I think the main thing is Temu is listening, and is trying to make things work,” he said.
From Test to Success
One of his best-selling models, a $21 Ecto-1 (also known as the Ectomobile) from the Ghostbusters franchise, sold more on Temu in six weeks than it did across all other platforms last year, clearing out inventory in multiple markets.
Mcslots’ initial Temu store listings carried less than 10% of the company’s catalog. Encouraged by the performance, Crowhurst said he’s working to list the rest of his product catalog on Temu as summer orders continue to roll in. He’s also coordinating with several suppliers in the UK and continental Europe to ramp up production ahead of the Christmas season.
Crowhurst also hopes to expand further using Temu’s global network. The company projects it’ll close this year at a 33% increase in revenue over last year’s £317,000.
“I can't wait for Christmas,” said Crowhurst.
