Independents have been quick to latch on to the latest TikTok trend for Labubu dolls, which were the brainchild of Hong Kong-born artist Kasing Lung, and have become a must-have toy.
Zahid Iqbal of Day-Today Drylaw has already sold 11,000 of the mini monsters and counting. “They keep selling out,” he said. “People are buying 1,2,3, sometimes 10 [at a time]! We’ve actually had people coming in and offering to pay us in advance for them.”
He has been maintaining momentum by running like and share competitions on the dolls, which cost him £6.50 and sell for £10. “We have a big Facebook following and anything that is trending, they’ll get it. I’ve just ordered another 5,000 and half of them have already been reserved.”
Faraz Iqbal of Linktown Local in Kirkcaldy has also seen success. “I’d seen them on social media and one of my customers asked if we could get them,” he said. “We bought a couple of boxes and they sold out in an hour.”
He has since ordered another 10 boxes. “Some of the packs are sealed because customers want the surprise of not knowing the colour,” he noted.
A supervisor at South Parks Local Premier in Glenrothes said: “We got them in recently and we sold out within a couple of hours. They are extremely ugly, but I’ve seen them on TikTok, so it’s kids being kids and wanting them.”
And it’s not just Scottish consumers that are longing for Labubu. Searches for Labubu dolls on Amazon rose by a staggering 1,477% from March to May, while Google searches in the UK have surged by 316% in the past two months, hitting 29 million globally, according to ecommerce marketing platform Omnisend.
However, Trading Standards have been warning of the dangers of counterfeit Labubu dolls, a number of which have been seized from stores in Aberdeen.
If you have concerns, please contact your local Trading Standards.
