Distributions of educational toys on the most-selling toy lists of popular shopping platforms in turkey according to developmental domains and skills they support

Date

2025-1

Author

Karamanlı, Aykut

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This study aims to examine the distribution of the best-selling educational toys on the most popular online shopping platforms in Turkey in terms of which developmental areas and skills they target for children aged 3-6. Children and their development are of great importance for both parents and educators. Play, as the pathway for children's learning, and toys, as the fundamental tools of play, hold equal significance. Toys contribute significantly to a child's development as they facilitate play, which is a child's natural way of learning. Both educators and parents aim for the toys they provide to have educational value for children, thus they seek to offer diverse play experiences with different toys. However, this is not always the case. In reality, there are numerous toys marketed with labels such as "educational," "developmental," and "instructive," but it is often unclear whether they truly deserve these labels or why they do. The fact that toys with similar features are sold under different names or brands can also mislead consumers and hinder the holistic development of children. Nowadays, shopping has transformed compared to the past, with online shopping gaining increasing popularity due to its convenience and cost-effectiveness. These platforms offer consumers hundreds of thousands of toy options. While this variety may seem satisfying in terms of quantity, it may not be so in terms of quality or diversity of use. Knowing which developmental areas and skills toys support, as well as analyzing the market, allows consumers to reconsider their choices and obliges manufacturers to respond to the demands generated by increased consumer awareness. Therefore, this study created a population by collecting the top 900 best-selling toys for the 3-6 age group from three leading shopping sites in Türkiye: Trendyol, Hepsiburada, and N11, with an equal number from each platform. Using a random sample of 300 toys from this population, content analysis was used to determine which developmental areas and skills these toys support and their price ranges. The distribution of the intended use and functional output of the toys was presented to both consumers and manufacturers. In this way, the necessity for more rational consumption and production actions to support children through multiple means has been emphasized.

Subject Keywords

oyun, oyuncak, çocuk

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/113031

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis