“Australasian market stimulated by Wellington sex toy brand”
NBR, May 2021
Despite a preponderance of being holed up with our nearest and dearest during Covid-19, there wasn’t a lot of extra procreating going on if last week’s drooping population figures are any guide.
But certainly there was something going on, if a record year in the sale of sex toys was anything to go by. For just one example, according to Adult Toy Megastore in the 48 hours before the March lockdown, sex toy sales tripled, with single Kiwis and those separated from their loved ones in particular turning to the products to help pass the time of day or night.
Figures are hard to come by, but a UK study in 2017 suggested New Zealand had the highest percentage of vibrator ownership worldwide, and the local market is worth a few hundred million. The global market is worth some $32 billion, and growing fast, as conservative markets such as those across Asia and the Middle East adapt to buying product through increasingly sophisticated and private e-commerce channels.
In New Zealand, Wellington is where the large players base themselves, including e-commerce sex toy juggernaut Adult Brands, which trades as Adult Toy Megastore, and sex toy wholesaler Wholesale Solutions, both of which and much more besides are owned by Craig Relph, who is also one of Wellington’s biggest landlords.
Both companies send out thousands of different products from their warehouses each week; Adult Brands is more focused on individual ecommerce customers while Wholesale Solutions supplies to about 200 retailers from the country’s adult products retailers to pharmacies and physiotherapists. It is working on getting the less confrontational skews in its portfolios on shelves in the likes of David Jones and Farmers.
Satisfyer Pro 2.0 Next Generation
Spearheading the broader general retail footprint of the products is business and product development Manager Taslim Parsons, who came from the charity sector and admits she is “selective” about who she discloses details of her day job to.
“But more and more, I'm really proud of our achievement, and really proud of what we've done,” she says.
“Sexual wellness is something that is becoming more mainstream, and I'm really proud to be helping that conversation and bringing it to the mainstream…I was just telling somebody at my daughter’s mother-daughter interview breakfast this morning what I did for a living and she was intrigued; most people are really intrigued. They want to know more.”
Wholesale Solutions, which started life as a homewares wholesaler, sells all global sex toy brands that come into New Zealand. These include Swedish brand Lelo, and US brands Ovo, Zalo, and Satisfyer, which until recently made the country's most popular product, the Satisfyer Pro 2.0 Next Generation vibrator.
Parsons says deliberate marketing around the product, going outside the usual channels, meant the Satisfyer Pro 2.0 Next Generation was the first sex toy to be talked about in mainstream “very openly”.
"We did an event in Auckland where we were giving away Satisfyer Pro 2.0 thinking, you know, maybe 200-300 people would turn up - and over 2000 people turned to Aotea Square," she says. The product has topped most popular lists for two years thanks to heavy promotion into sex toy channels but also into things like parties held by influencers to introduce the product to possibly brand new customers. The broader market promotion of sex toys is "unique to the way we operate" says Parsons.
"We do that because we know that we can help those brands achieve representation here in New Zealand, which wasn't done before. So so we've got a unique way of promoting product. We work with other distributors across the globe as well and we ship in we've got a massive warehouse here in in Wellington. So we hold that stock, which means we can fulfill really fast."
Fast fulfilment was very important not just to meet orders in the lead-up to lockdown, but also throughout lockdown. Condoms and lubricant especially are designated medical devices and are therefore "essential" items, even while most brick and mortar retailers had to shut their doors.
Share Satisfaction
Two years ago Wholesale Solutions decided it wanted to create its own brand of sex toys, the first full range (with some 150 different product lines) branded and modified in New Zealand (manufacturing in medical grade silicon in New Zealand itself is considered too expensive, and that is done overseas).
Parsons says creating products and branding that was non-threatening, non-confronting and could pass on a mainstream retailer’s shelf without raised eyebrows was the goal. Parsons and the owner agreed on the direction and started talking to sex toy makers around the world.
"I had made a list of criteria that we wanted to adhere to - things like being made out of medical grade silicon, USB rechargeable, beautiful to look at, waterproof, and they had to be quiet," she says.
The 20-person team at Warehouse Solutions are accustomed to testing products as they come in and so with their help in trialing the merchandise combined with branding and design tweaks, the company devised a brand that they thought fitted the brief but could also potentially represent New Zealand design excellence and quality in overseas markets.
The brand, called Share Satisfaction, launched in October 2020 and just eight months in has done $1m in sales, most of that from its double-action vibrator called Kama, of which almost two million are currently in production. Parsons says the brand will reach $5 million in sales in its first year and it has been picked up in Australia and parts of Latin America as well.
The company is seeking to launch several thousand products under the Share Satisfaction in the rest of the year and believes it can become the best-selling brand in Australasia by the end of 2021, with an impact on the global adult toy market by 2024.
Asked what is different about the actual product line compared with what has come before, Parsons says the line works with “lots of bodies regardless of gender, regardless of preference.
“We initially looked at it as developing a range for couples but we decided very quickly as that conversation around physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing and sexual wellbeing has taken off, and we know a good sexual relationship starts with yourself, you have to be comfortable and know what you want in order to have a fulfilling relationship with a partner.
"So we quickly moved away from a couple's range to a range that works for everybody ... anybody can use them."
The future of sex toys
The future of sex play is technology-based, according to both Parsons and industry literature, with Bluetooth controllable vibrators, wearable, remote controlled strokers and vibrators, virtual reality experiences with a physical dimension, and mechanised silicone mouldings of your partner’s genitals all a thing.
While a great deal of thought and R&D goes into this tech, it does not always mean it is accepted by the wider tech industry. Only in 2020 was sex tech finally allowed on the main floor of industry-defining Consumer Technology Association expo in the US and the list of rules around how it could be displayed was exhaustive, including no anatomically correct devices, no robots or dolls, and the warning that “exhibitor signage and graphics should not include any content that depicts or describes actual or simulated sexual acts nor should it include any pictures or renderings of genitalia”
Parsons says the main thing holding back even more explosive growth in sex tech and sex toys more generally remains social prohibition.
"That said, the conversations are becoming more mainstream, people are talking about it. And younger and younger people are having really open and frank conversations about sex toys and sexual fulfilment that I would never have done in my 20s. It wasn't a thing, then. But those conversations have become much more fluid and much more open."
A potential stay on growth could also be generated with bad product and poor quality offerings, although Parsons says the company aims to avoid selling such product into the market.
"We test our products, we make sure they're really good, and they're of high quality. If something doesn't work, we pull it off.
"The adult toy market globally is sitting at about US$32 billion at the moment, it's set to grow by 2028 to US$52 billion, which is massive growth, right? So I'm hoping there won't be any holes in the growth."
That would suit Parsons just fine.
"I love working in this business. It's it's fast moving, it's innovative, it's creative. What I found is, you know, you're having conversations around sex and wellness and pleasure. So there's a real honesty."
"And you know, they say don't mix business with pleasure, but we do it every day."
By Dita De Boni
Senior journalist
Contact the Writer: dita@nbr.co.nz
Dita De Boni: Senior journalist
Direct Line: +64 9 912 2727
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