Europe's Sex Toy Industry Expects Banner Holiday Sales

Santa knows who’s been naughty and who’s been nice. This year, he’s rewarding couples who want to be both. Spurred by the global sensation of the Fifty Shades of Grey bondage trilogy—the best-selling books of all time in Britain—sex toys featured in the tale are leading to a banner Christmas for the adult novelty industry. Europe’s retailers are struggling to keep up with demand for the leather-covered spanking paddles and blindfolds featured in the novels.

Just as Sex and the City made the Rabbit vibrator an acceptable household appliance for single women more than a decade ago, the erotic novels’ popularity has made restraints and so-called love balls acceptable stocking stuffers for couples this year. Explains Nick Hewson, head of Hewson Group, which does market research on women’s products: Sex play, such as bondage, domination, and sadomasochism, “tends to be a couples activity. You need at least two people there.” The $2 billion industry has grown from 5 percent to 10 percent annually in the past decade as retailers went upscale and targeted women, according to Hewson; it will expand at the top end of that range this year and could exceed 15 percent next year due to the ripple effect of Fifty Shades.