Whites Farm Baby Barn

retailer opinion

Nursery Today spoke to Whites Farm Baby Barn owner Sara Hubbard to find out her thoughts on the year ahead as an independent nursery retailer.

What are your hopes for 2023 as a business?

We hope that we continue to see new excited parents-to-be come through our doors with such enthusiasm and joy, and that more and more families in our area discover our services. During the pandemic many people kept repeating the phrase “be kind”; and we hope for 2023 that people remember this sentiment and try to include that thinking in their shopping experiences.

Do you think your customers will be altering their buying habits during the continued cost of living crisis?

We have already seen it start to happen. People are being more cautious with what they spend their money on, making sure it’s really worth it. We do think however you will still see customers who prioritise things like baby clothes and luxury changing bags, rather than safety items like car seats - so feel that we need to be prepared with a variety of price points for this reason.

How has the cost-of-living crisis effected your own business, for example, the cost of running your store?

We have seen electricity costs quadruple, luckily we installed a more cost-effective/efficient lighting and heating system last September so hopefully we will see a benefit from having this once prices stabilise.

We also think that keeping our appointment system is helping. That way we aren’t open on days where we have no customers in - we aren’t on a high street or a busy route so we don’t want to be open and lighting/ heating the store with no payoff.

Are your customers running research online prior to purchase and expecting larger discounts or price-matching from you?

We haven’t noticed any more price matching enquiries than normal. So many of our suppliers are offering fabulous January sales and savings that we can pass on to our customers, so this is working really well for us. We always have a 50/50 split with customers when it comes to research. Some want to be totally prepared and clued up, others prefer guidance without their judgement being clouded by things they’ve already read about.

What do you feel will be your largest challenge this year?

Unfortunately, we feel the biggest challenge is going to be customers not shopping smartly. When we say this we mean people purchasing products because of the wrong reasons, whether that’s based purely on aesthetic/ brand name rather than functionality, or because of a great bundle price. If a pushchair is in a cheap bundle but isn’t working for you, you’re always going to run into problems. When customers aren’t satisfied with a product because they’ve made a poor choice it makes our aftersales process so much harder.

What type of support would you like to see your suppliers giving you throughout 2023?

We always struggle when the brands themselves start discounting products on their own sites - yet don’t offer us the option to offer the same discounts, or similar sale prices. This means we end up being a glorified showroom when customers end up purchasing elsewhere.

Also, when it comes to aftersales a few suppliers are guilty of washing their hands of product issues, citing “the customer bought it from our store therefore it’s purely our problem” - we would appreciate more comprehensive support from suppliers when it comes to warranty claims and repairs.

Do you feel there will be a particular nursery product category that will be trending this year, or perhaps a colourway, products with eco credentials, etc.?

We do think that products with multiple uses are going to become more popular - for example multi stage car seats - due to the increased cost of living, customers will want the most out of their products.

We are seeing lots of suppliers including eco-friendly products/materials in their main ranges without price increases - and do notice that customers are impressed/interested in these options when we are demonstrating in store.

How will you be utilising social media throughout 2023? Do you feel this will give your business a higher level of success to bring customer awareness and drive footfall or visits to your website?

As always, our website is purely a window to the store, showing what we offer in store but not offering a place to purchase.

We do most of our interaction with customers via social media and this is set to continue. With the arrival of our two new grandchildren, and another grandchild due end of March, we are planning lots of social media posts/ campaigns that feature them and the products they are using. Our customers like seeing an insight into our real lives, and really connect with our family as young parents with an honest voice.

As a business, what would you say will be your main strategy for the year ahead?

Naturally, we want our business to move forward and improve, our net sales for 2022 compared to 2021 are amazing and we are so proud of that.

We do also believe in the importance of growing our business while maintaining a healthy work/life balance.