Retailer is continuing to invest in dress-up category, says childrenswear head of buying John Carolan.
Harry Potter is expected to be the most popular character to dress up as for this World Book Day, with Sainsbury’s reporting strong sales of its costumes.
The retailer has significantly invested in its children’s dress-up range for World Book Day (Thursday March 2) – as noted by The Source last week.
It has increased the size of the range by 35% since last year to keep up with the growing demand for children’s costumes.
Sainsbury’s has also seen increasing books sales for Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland, Where’s Wally, The Gruffalo and titles by Roald Dahl in the run up to World Book Day.
In the week running up to World Book Day last year, Sainsbury’s saw sales increase by more than 20 per cent.
While Harry Potter is expected to take the golden snitch, Alice from Alice in Wonderland will be the second most popular character, narrowly beating the Gruffalo. Snow White is predicted to come in fourth place.
Sainsbury’s head of buying and design – childrenswear and menswear, John Carolan, said: “Sainsbury’s customers can expect high quality and fantastic value products across all our ranges, for every occasion.
“Children’s fancy dress is a growing market and we’re committed to creating the very best products for our customers, whatever their age and right down to the smallest detail. Our World Book Day costumes are a great example of how we’re continuing to invest where it matters most to our customers.
“Our spell-binding Harry Potter costume comes with a robe, glasses, Gryffindor tie, golden snitch, wand and even a ticket for the Hogwarts Express – and all for just £15.”
Last year, Sainsbury’s sold 1.2 million children’s fancy dress costumes. Its overall childrenswear category has seen sales grow in double digits over the last two years against a market which has grown 4%.
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