Five Crafts Doubled Online in China: Four Moves for Brands

Online sales of five craft and hobby products in China grew +116% like for like in the year to August 2026 across three of China's largest marketplaces, according to Moojing Market Intelligence, while toys as a whole fell 7%, and we recommend that brands treat China's analogue turn as a craft and hobby economy, in which the growth is in materials and projects that customers buy again.

This article covers the fifth chapter of the full report, China's Analogue Economy, which draws the first four chapters together into four recommendations for brands, in order of priority, the first being the one on which the evidence is strongest and the last the one with the largest unknown.

Key figures

• +116%: like-for-like online sales growth of five craft and hobby products, September 2025 to August 2026
• About CN¥ 2.0 billion: the sales those five products added in the latest year, on the annual totals
• About CN¥ 3.2 billion: the sales compact cameras added over the same period, mostly by selling at higher prices
• About 230,000: posts about bead cafés in the latest year, from about 4,000

Method and scope: observed online sales across three of China's largest marketplaces, September 2023 to August 2026, and social listening across Weibo, RED and Douyin, September 2024 to August 2026, from Moojing Market Intelligence; sales are not the total market, and social listening counts posts, not purchases.

What does China's analogue economy look like?#

China's version of the analogue turn, on this evidence, is a consumer who wants something to do with their hands, buys the materials cheaply and in quantity, does it with friends or children in a shop when they can, and shares the result online, while the vocabulary of digital detox stays small. The money splits two ways, with materials growing on volume and devices on price.

Exhibit 4. Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, observed marketplace data across three online marketplaces, September 2025 to August 2026 against September 2024 to August 2025, like for like. * Jigsaw puzzles on two marketplaces. The fuse-bead bar is cut at the axis edge. Not the total market.

The five craft and hobby products added about CN¥ 2.0 billion in the latest year on the annual totals, while compact cameras added more, about CN¥ 3.2 billion, mostly by selling at higher prices, so a brand has to know which of the two economies it is in. The research favours substitution over abstinence, since a 2022 review of 21 studies in Mobile Media & Communication found mixed effects from time away from smartphones, and in a 2025 PNAS Nexus trial fewer than one in three participants kept a two-week block on mobile internet for most of it, while a State Council work plan in January 2026 named "emotional and experiential services" as a growth point to cultivate.

1. Sell the materials and projects that are bought again#

The growth in China's craft and hobby economy is in consumables such as fuse beads and yarn, and in the patterns and refills that go with them, which are used up and bought again, while most of the devices that are bought once are falling, so we recommend that brands build ranges around projects, patterns and refills.

Brands should also plan for a craft that rises quickly to settle just as quickly, as instant cameras did after their surge in 2025. The bead maker MARD has built its range around the purchase that comes back, since its 221-colour chart has become the trade's default standard and it sells small refill packs in each colour while releasing new patterns almost every month, as Tencent News reported in June 2026. The recommendation is for craft-materials makers, stationery brands and the retailers that stock them, and the things to watch are whether monthly unit sales of fuse beads hold near their July 2026 high, and whether yarn keeps its pace.

2. Price materials for volume, and devices for the trade-up#

Fuse beads sell online at about CN¥ 16 a unit and journals sold 5% more units at prices 13% lower, so materials should be priced for small baskets bought often, while compact cameras added more money than the five craft and hobby products together by selling at higher prices on a few more units, so a device brand should sell the step up to a better camera instead of competing on price.

Ricoh took the step up when the compact came back into fashion, bringing a new generation of its GR street camera to China in August 2025 at a list price of CN¥ 8,999, with an APS-C sensor and five-axis stabilisation that no cheap retro camera offers, as IT Home reported. The recommendation is for materials makers on one side and camera and accessory brands on the other, and the thing to watch is the compact camera's average price against its units, since makers' shipments began slipping in June and July 2026, according to CIPA.

3. Talk to parents and to young adults differently#

On Douyin, the people who talk about quitting the phone are mostly in their thirties and often talking about their children, while more than half of the people posting about fuse beads there are under 31, so a product sold to get children off screens and one sold as a pastime for young adults need different channels and language, even when it is the same box of beads.

The platforms have already split the audience this way, with one of the large short-video platforms taking its 2026 bead contest into thirteen shopping centres over the May Day holiday as an event for families, Pedaily reported, while RED ran its "I've caught the bead bug" (我染上了拼豆) campaign as a hashtag challenge and contests in six cities for people posting their own work. Our article on the digital detox conversation in China sets out the age and hashtag evidence, and the recommendation is for brand and social teams planning content on the social platforms, who should watch the age profile of posters on each keyword, since it shifts early.

4. Follow the craft into the shop, with care#

The bead café is where the conversation about fuse beads has moved, with posts about bead cafés going from about 4,000 to about 230,000 in a year, and since marketplace data cannot see physical shops, brands relying on online sales alone will underestimate the trend, so supplying or partnering with craft studios is the opportunity.

Exhibit 6. Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, social listening across Weibo, RED and Douyin, posts mentioning 拼豆店, September 2024 to August 2026. Conversation volume, not sales.

By August 2026 the shops were in a price war, with one shop owner in Zhejiang telling local reporters that the price of the shop's all-day package had halved within two months, so we believe brands should supply materials and patterns to shops instead of opening their own. Brands have already joined the craft this way, with the Belgian leather house Delvaux running hands-on bead workshops and the tea chain Chagee bringing beading into its tea shops, while beauty brands such as 3CE and AHC have turned their best-known products into patterns that anyone can download, as Jing Daily reported in August 2026. The recommendation is for materials suppliers and for retail and food-and-drink operators, who should watch bead-café posts and hourly prices, and whether new shops keep opening.

What happens next?#

We will watch whether fuse beads settle at their 2026 level, as instant cameras did after their surge, or fade, and whether yarn keeps its pace, and, since online sales data cannot see it, whether the bead café becomes a lasting kind of shop.

The four chapters behind these recommendations each have their own article: the digital detox conversation, China's online fuse-bead sales, journals and the journaling bag and compact cameras and the retro devices. The full report has the method, the comparison with the United States and every exhibit.