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Adult Coloring Books Make $100 Million In Just 5 Months For Walmart And Apps Are Cashing In, Too

By Heather Tooley
Published on: 03:03 PST, Jun 2, 2016

Adult coloring books continue to spike in popularity. Its trend hasn’t slowed down any with the sales of coloring books for grown-ups being a hot seller for stores like Walmart, Michael’s, and Barnes and Noble.

The Street reports that Walmart announced at its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday that adult coloring books have made the company $100 million so far in 2016.

“Adult coloring books are on fire, a lot of people are stressed and coloring relaxes people,” said Steve Bratspies, Walmart’s U.S. chief merchandising officer.

Other major stores are seeing huge numbers in the sale of adult coloring books as well. Michael’s, for instance, saw a giant uptick in sales over the holiday season, and it hasn’t stopped.

“We continue to capitalize on the growing trend of coloring for adults, highlighting our selection of book titles and coloring tools in the front of the store and on our website, making them easy for customers to find,” said Michael’s chairman and CEO Carl Rubin.

Michael’s has a selection of over 150 coloring books!

Barnes & Noble highlighted the fact that adult coloring books helped their sales numbers during the holiday season since traditional books tapered off.

By Nielsen Bookscan’s estimations, some 12 million adult coloring books were sold in 2015. That’s a significant jump from the one million sold in 2014.

It’s not just adult coloring books that are booming in sales, either. Colored pencils are seeing a huge spike in sales, which has gone up 26.3 percent in 2015. That’s a massive increase compared to the previous three years when growth ranged from 1.3 to 7.2 percent, Nielsen reports.

The Inquisitr has covered various categories of information related to the hot trend in coloring books for grown-ups. An article on the best coloring books can be found in this article and the best colored pencils can be explored more in-depth here.

The best pens and markers to use for adult coloring books is also covered in this article.

According to the South China Morning Post, sales of adult coloring books skyrocketed from one million in 2014 to 12 million in 2015, a 1,100 percent increase from 2014.

The American Art Therapy Association released a statement in response to the continuing trend of coloring books.

“The American Art Therapy Association supports the use of coloring books for pleasure and self-care, however, these uses should not be confused with the delivery of professional art therapy services, during which a client engages with a credentialed art therapist.”

The SCMP report also reveals an app for coloring books has done well cashing in on the craze. Ten months after it launched, mobile coloring apps, Recolor and Colorify, have seen 2.3 million users in the U.S. in March, according to comScore researchers.

Users can use their stylus pens on iPads and color the pictures. It’s more economical in some instances when you consider the price of colored pens and pencils. A third-party add-on can be 99 cents for different colors, and they go smooth with the touch of a screen.

Nevertheless, there’s debate surrounding which is the best route to go — pencil-to-paper or digital app. Some believe the non-digital version will be a more enriching experience for users.

Shelly Durham, who manages the website Adult Coloring Book Reviews, has this view of digital coloring apps.

“Using a colouring app and saying you created art is like putting a TV dinner in the microwave and saying you cooked. They will never be the same,” she said.

Art isn’t a one-size-fits-all recreation. There’s no right or wrong way to create art or fill in coloring books.

[Image via Shutterstock]

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