Family first

Nursery Today had the pleasure to catch up with the team at Babyland

Cheltenham. Here they tell us more about their family run independent nursery store which has been trading for more than 60 years.

Tell us a little about the store – when did you first open your doors?

We first opened our doors in 1904 as Williams & Co: a cycle shop, alongside motorcycles. A toy shop and nursery and baby items department came in around 1961; selling pushchairs, seats, high chairs and toys. The company also took on car dealerships with Fiat and Volvo. We have always been family-run and situated in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

How have you established yourselves as the ‘go to’ nursery retailer in your area?

As the longest running local familyowned and family-run baby store in Gloucestershire, we pride ourselves on our customer loyalty and reputation for great customer service. We host a relaxed shopping experience and are never hard-sales based; our customers always appreciate this and the feedback we receive always reassures us too. Our personal touch also sets us apart from other retailers: we train all of our staff to the fullest extent, so we have no need for high-tech tablets to clarify product details, and allows us to have no barriers between us and our customers.

What are you currently doing as a store that sets you apart from your competitors?

We offer a personalised shopping experience for each and every one of our customers; all members of our team are highly trained, and we tailor our product knowledge to each customers individual lifestyle to find their perfect pram. We know one style does not fit all, so we host multiple brands for the best choice selection for our customers – we know 12 nursery today we have one of the widest selections of pushchairs in our county, which is something we are very proud of!

By being a family-run business we operate under our own family values, so our customers can rely on us for trustworthiness, transparency and honesty when it comes to their shopping experience and even product and customer aftercare. Our oldfashioned family superstitions also holds us apart from our competitors: superstitions such as not having prams in the house, encouraged us to offer storage for all pushchair orders until collection is needed; which is a polar opposite to most of our competitors who require customers to take their products straight away.

As a business, how have you grown over the years?

Since 1904 there have been many changes, one of the biggest changes came in the 60’s when the Williams family decided to branch out into separate shops for nursery and cycles due to an increase in business for the baby side. Ever since, we have been expanding the range of products available and increasing the showroom area as more and more brands become available. We now have excellent displays for our ranges and attract customers from far and wide.

Over the years, what has been your largest challenge and also what has been your biggest success?

As we are a small independent instore-only business, our biggest challenge is competing with online retailers and their prices. As we do not have access to any big warehouses, we stock what we can and will also place special orders for our customers. Although it is often deemed a challenge, we see it as a success too: this system makes every order a special occasion for our customers, and it is often an event where the whole family gets involved. By not having a huge presence online yet, we rely heavily on word-of-mouth advertising for our store, which we have discovered can be very powerful, as we are still here today! You have been trading for many years, do you feel that the Nursery retail landscape has changed dramatically over time?

The landscape for nursery retail has changed and expanded greatly over the years, hundreds of brands have popped up and everyone is trying their best to bring new designs to the table. Customers have never had so much choice when it comes to travel systems, with bigger and better aesthetics, ease of use, and storage saving. It seems gone are the days where you only had 5 prams choices with 5 colour options from classics like Marmot or Wilson. The biggest change has come with all the regulations and new standards for the modern pram systems and car seats. You specialize in prams, car seats and furniture – do you feel you might onboard other nursery products in the future?

We have done a range of other products in the past such as wooden toys, highchairs, and bathing items; but now we stick to the main hardware of baby products. Despite this, we have just started to keep a larger selection of baby carriers and plan to start meetings with local groups to help even more people in our community safely transport their children. Which product category do you experience the highest demand for in your area?

We experience a high demand for car seats and prams but the main thing we are seeing and hearing more often is that customers are more aware of rotating car seats. Ever since the release of the Cybex Cloud Z a few years ago, more and more brands are putting their design effort into things that make life easier, and this is certainly becoming a must-have for many parents-to-be. Your store has two floors – how do you manage your floor space to ensure your customers have the best experience when shopping for nursery products?

By having two floors, we have the ability to display full furniture sets on the upper level giving even more space downstairs for our prams, accessories and car seat displays. We are also trained to offer car seat fitting services for our customers.

Are your customers brand focussed and how important are brand names to your business?

As we don’t push customers to particular products unless it suits their needs better, we try to stay as neutral as possible when it comes to brands. However, a lot of people will still come in for the classic brands that their parents might have had, such as Silver Cross, along with the social media presence of influencers nowadays that advertise brands like iCandy, we get customers coming in specifically as their favourite social media stars have got it or had pictures of it.

Are your customers seeking products that carry some level of eco-credentials?

We’ve seen a rise in more eco-friendly products from lots of our brands, so there’s more availability and choice when it comes to being eco-conscious. We don’t necessarily see more customers asking for eco-credentials, but we see more availability for sure. This ranges from strollers being made from recycled plastic bottles, to car seats made from recycled fabrics. How do you keep abreast of new products that might be of interest to your customers?

Every year we attend the Harrogate International Nursery Fair which showcases up-and-coming products, and where we carefully select new brands and products to stock that would be of interest to our customers.

Our subscription to Nursery Today also gives us a helping hand in staying up to date with new product launches and successes from other stores.

Have you spotted any current consumer buying trends, or see any emerging trends on the horizon?

Our most noticeable trend at the moment is the mix-and-matching of brands when it comes to travel systems.

As a small independent we’re able to offer even more choices when it comes to our customers picking a pushchair and car seat, and we’re seeing an increase in customers wanting rotating or reclining car seats with their pram bundles. Do you feel that we have sufficient innovation and new product launches within our industry?

Within the last decade there have been huge developments within our industry, and even more so within the last few years. We’ve seen the biggest developments in innovation through car seats and car seat safety: infant carriers with built-in isofix points; fully reclining and rotating car seats, and a higher safety standard all round. Travel systems have also noticeably developed, we now stock a great selection of travel approved strollers, and strollers which are overhead compartment and airline compatible. You have great parking facilities outside the store, what benefits does this bring to the business?

We have a forecourt on the front of our store which allows us to effectively carry out car seat fitting checks – this is a popular service we offer all of our customers, which gives everyone peace of mind before placing an order and gives parents-to-be another opportunity to try out the car seat’s features before committing. Our forecourt parking is completely free, so our customers are not under any time pressures when visiting our store; there is also a large pay-and-display car park behind our store, for customers wanting to spend time around Cheltenham town after their visit to us. Both of these parking sites allow us to further help our customers with a carry-to-car service after purchase.

With this being an incredibly emotive industry sector, how do you give your customers reassurance when placing orders with you?

We have been trading as Babyland since the sixties, and have strong relationships with all of our suppliers, such as Silver Cross who we have been stockists for since 1961. Being a family-run independent store we are very friendly with our suppliers and go out of our way to build new relationships with new brands too. We are the only family-run independent pram and baby store in Gloucestershire and the surrounding area, our local community recognise our name and we have a strong reputation for our excellent customer service. Our customer loyalty is second to none, and we pride ourselves with serving different generations of the same families. Do you operate on social media and if so, what benefits does this bring to the business?

Our Facebook and Instagram accounts are invaluable to our success as a growing independent business and keeping up with our customer’s needs. Social media is one of our greatest tools in attracting and reaching new customers, building customer loyalty, as well as generating customer feedback. Our social media platforms allow us to divert traffic to our brand new website, which in turn helps us to improve our search engine ranking too. A presence online is so important in keeping up-to-date on developments both in-store and among our competitors! Finally, is there any exciting news on the horizon that you would like to share with our readers?

We are very excited with the direction of Babyland Cheltenham at the moment with big things on the horizon! We are currently building relationships with new brands, as well as building a bigger team of staff with more instore training and development opportunities. We are expanding our product groups and have even secured a partnership with Cuddle Co., for bigger and better displays for our loyal customers.