Today, Mattel announced their quarter 4 2021 (and 2021 as a whole) sales results for American Girl.
Unfortunately, American Girl’s sales dropped 6% in Quarter 4 of 2021 due to Courtney’s release being in Quarter 4 of 2020 causing a slump in historical character sales. But other segments in the American Girl brand were successful during Q4 of 2021, and their growth in the rest of the year outpaced this setback. Their overall sales in 2021 were 5% higher than in 2020.
My suggestion to AG? Please make more historical things. No historical other than Courtney has gotten anything new since 2019, and there are many items that can be added to the collection! The sales show that people like historical characters the best, because even if there’s a successful modern launch, the power of the historical brand can tip AG one way or the other, and the most likely reason why AG’s sales skyrocketed in 2021 was the release of the limited edition original historical characters. I’m literally begging AG to give the historical characters more items because they have seriously been neglected aside from Courtney in the past few years. (Please give Nanea more stuff, American Girl! She hasn’t gotten anything in four years! Everyone else too. They haven’t gotten anything in three years.)
My preference would be for the historical dolls to all be available with their meet accessories at all times, and each year for the doll to have ONE new outfit and ONE nice accessory set. Then once every couple of years in rotation maybe 4 dolls can have a special collection with a bigger item. That way each doll could have new things, but people would feel like they were outpriced on a whole collection all at once. It's just too much for most people to buy a whole big collection all in one year, let alone 2 or 3 or 4. But if a girl has 2 or 3 historical dolls she could easily get the 3 or …
YEAH. WHERE'S OUR HISTORICALS, *AG*
I can’t remember where or if I read this somewhere but I thought I read that the 35th anniversary dolls sold extremely well making their sales rocket. If that’s the case doesn’t it tell them that there are so many people out there who are interested in the historical dolls?
Yes, I agree with you, & all commenters on this post! American Girl needs to make an effort to revive the historical line. Considering how fast the 35th anniversary dolls sold out, I think it's clear what fans want. There are several particular historical dresses that go for hundreds each on the secondary market. I don't understand why AG wouldn't just make them again & profit off of that interest collectors still have in the older/retired items. I want Kirsten, Caroline, Marie-Grace, & Cecile back at some point. I realize they can't possibly have all characters available at once with collections, but they could have them on rotation. It'd be nice to have unabridged illustrated books with full history lessons…
I totally agree with the lack of Historical items. First bring back KIRSTEN,MOLLY,FELICITY,CAROLINE and CECILE and MARIE-GRACE. give then new outfits and re do their originals too. Publish the books with the historical information in the back like the original books. Do the same for Mary Ellen and Melody and any others. I have the older dolls and can not add anything to their wardrobes.
Marion