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Ulta Beauty to Launch Toy Minis of Its Bestselling Products

Plus: Playmobil, Mattel Partnership reveals Barbie toy line for 2026

Author

Zihan Lyu
August 20, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

Toy Talk

Here's what's happening this week in the world of toys and games eCommerce and brand marketing:
- Barbie crosses into Playmobil, 2026 launch planned.
- Sanrio's Hello Kitty & Friends transform into biggest kawaii rivals in new international toy release
- Labubus fuel pop mart's surge
-B&M slashes toy prices ahead of holiday season

💸 The $200B Miscalculation Marketers Can’t Afford

On stage at eTail Boston, Fospha’s Chief Product Officer, Dom Devlin, warned that retail’s reliance on last-click metrics is outdated, and it’s costing brands $200 billion in under-credited sales.

The missed connection is clear: shoppers often discover on TikTok, Meta, or Snap, but complete their purchase on Amazon, Walmart, or Target. Traditional attribution frameworks rarely connect those dots. As a result, channels that spark demand are stripped of credit, while budgets overweight the “closers” - whether or not they truly created the sale.

Dom called this the bottom-of-funnel trap: over-investing in channels that finish the purchase while underfunding those that generate demand. The fallout is higher acquisition costs and shrinking pipelines of future customers.

Fospha’s Halo platform was built to break that cycle. By integrating marketplace and DTC sales into one unified ROAS, it captures the full impact of discovery spend across the funnel. For brands like Nécessaire and Give Me Cosmetics, that visibility has unlocked the confidence to double down on demand generation while protecting profitability.

📥Download Fospha’s Halo Report to see how leaders are funding growth where it really starts.

📌WEEKLY MUST-KNOWS

Ulta teamed with Mini Brands to release toy replicas of 68+ SKUs from names like e.l.f., Supergoop!, and Urban Decay. It signals beauty’s toyification to drive impulse, UGC, and gifting while opening new licensing and display opportunities. Beauty brands, collectible makers, and mass retail are the immediate winners.

Sanrio launched a new international collab uniting Hello Kitty & Friends with Chiikawa. The crossover taps overlapping kawaii fandoms and scarcity dynamics to fuel demand across regions. Licensing teams and global retailers gain a fresh content engine for limited drops and collab storytelling

Labubu dolls may be intentionally grotesque, but there's nothing ugly about the earnings parent company Pop Mart reported this week. The Chinese toymaker said first-half revenues tripled to nearly $2bn and net profit soared 400%. Pop Mart derives 40% of its revenue outside China and is now more valuable than giants like Mattel, which makes Barbie. The success has spawned knockoffs, including one labeled a choking hazard.

Mattel and Playmobil will launch a Barbie x Playmobil line in summer 2026, inspired by Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures and designed for open-ended play. This is a cross-system franchise play that extends Barbie’s storytelling into the Playmobil ecosystem, setting a long runway for content-led merchandising.

🧐 What Does Brand Building Really Mean in eCommerce?

I had an engaging conversation with Alex Brownsell for the latest episode of the WARC Podcast. | Sam Carter, CEO at Fospha

We discussed where most brands get it wrong when it comes to brand building, with bad measurement and poor organizational structure amongst the biggest contributing factors - and how Fospha is aiming to solve the biggest questions around brand measurement with Glow.

Thanks Alex and team again for having me (and for offering a brief airconditioned respite from the intense heat and chaos of Cannes!)

⚡QUICK READS

10 Of The Rarest McDonald's Happy Meal Toys And How Much They Might Be Worth Today: Resale signals: mint-in-bag sets and nostalgia IPs are commanding hundreds, underscoring the collector market’s appetite for complete, pristine runs.(More)

B&M Slashes Toy Prices Ahead of Holiday Season: B&M has launched heavy toy discounts, with savings of up to 50% on brands like Lego, Barbie, and Hot Wheels. This highlights the early push on price-led promotions to capture budget-conscious parents gearing up for Christmas — and the importance of timing discounts to win share of wallet before peak season.(More)

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