Subscribe Now!

Events Calendar

Online Product Catalogs

Manufacturers Directory

Product Update Pages

eBabyShop newsletter

Baby Shop Flipbook

Sales of juvenile products have climbed steadily over the past two decades, with a new generation of older, more prosperous parents willing to pay top dollar when shopping for their offspring. Add grandparents, aunts, and other doting relatives to the list of potential customers, and you have a large base of consumers ready to reward the canny retailer.

As a result, recent years have brought a boom in merchandise devoted to babies and children, and conditions are better than ever for selling juvenile furniture and other items. An increasing number of specialty stores are adding sections devoted to these products or expanding their existing juvenile-related space.

But unfortunately, many retailers don’t gain the maximum value from this section because they fail to plan and effectively merchandise their new departments. Having specialized in this market for more than 20 years as the designer, owner, and operator of Martinek Bebe, I’ve discovered that with a bit of work you can gain attention – and big sales – for your juvenile section.

What to Carry
Big box retail stores and major chains dominate the market for lower-end merchandise. Your customers will expect something different from a specialty store, so your best bet is to carry medium to high-end products. A relatively small inventory of high-quality merchandise is ideal. You’ll find that if you’re creative in your merchandising and careful in your selection of products, your customers will accept a higher price point.

You need several attention-getting pieces to draw customers to your department. Paying top dollar for a piece that creates the right atmosphere and draws traffic is a worthwhile investment: even if a customer doesn’t ultimately buy the ornate and expensive cradle that caused her to stop and look, you still create interest in your other, more reasonably priced juvenile merchandise. Strategically placed gift sets containing beautiful blankets and other high-quality items can serve the same purpose.

Extravagant, eye-catching products help your traffic and sales in another way: with juvenile furniture and other items, just as with other categories of retail, moving a customer up in price point once she’s closed on a less expensive item is next to impossible. Start your customer at the top with your displays, and she’ll work her way down to the products that fit her budget.
If you stay on top of current trends, some of your showy products can actually be top sellers as well as a powerful draw for foot traffic. Round cribs decorated with whimsical finials are a great example of such a product and are increasingly popular with new parents. An oval cradle, so different in appearance from the standard rectangle shape, is also an eye-catching hot item.
If you want to stock the most popular baby colors, think pink – currently the top seller. Shades of pink are wildly popular for all kinds of merchandise, including furniture. Upscale bedding and other soft goods have become more luxurious in recent years, with super-soft plush fabrics, including minky plush and the lightly perforated minky dot, accounting for more and more sales. Silk and chenille are also popular.

Merchandising Your Juvenile Department
Carrying the right product mix is one key element of success, but how those items are displayed is just as important. The tips below will help you to get the most from your juvenile section:

• Having good fixtures in your department, even for non-furniture items, is essential. A customer’s opinion of an entire section is influenced by the quality of the fixtures. Few consumers will accept a high price point for products that are surrounded by cheap, shabby racks, cases, shelves, and tables.
• Antique furniture pieces pressed into service as fixtures might look wonderful, but there’s a serious downside to using them: sometimes wobbly or rickety, they can be prone to collapse or breakage, especially with the sort of heavy daily use they’ll receive in a retail setting. New fixtures with an arresting, antique appearance are more likely to be well made and sturdy enough for day-to-day use.
• Fixture and wall colors should correspond to your products. Nothing is more jarring and unattractive to the customer than seeing pale items displayed against a hunter green wall. For infant furniture, subtle pastels or neutrals are always good choices.
• The juvenile section of your store will also be much more appealing if it’s well lit. Bright light evokes a cheery atmosphere, and it will highlight the upscale fixtures, furniture, and gift items in your department.
• Many retailers make the mistake of dropping a display crib mattress to the lowest setting, but you should keep the mattresses in your cribs as high as possible. The presentation will be much more effective, as bedding and related items can be more easily seen. The top setting also more closely matches what parents will use with a newborn.

If carefully planned and maintained, the juvenile section of your specialty store will provide you with your share of the booming market in children’s products.

Pat Martinek is the owner and operator of Martinek Bebe, which offers exquisite juvenile furniture, bedding, linens, and store fixtures. For more information, please visit www.martinekbebe.com. (Reprinted with permission from AmericasMart.)