Retail Matters: Online4Baby

Strolling to success

This month Nursery Today had the pleasure to catch up with My Baby Stroller’s owner, Richard Smerdon to find out more about their business and their recent move to a new, larger showroom.

Can you tell us a little about My Baby Stroller, what was the inspiration behind first opening your doors?

When we were shopping for our son’s stroller and accessories, we found that the few shops we had been to were impersonal and the large chains are just focussed on selling. We actually ended up buying something we weren’t that happy with and didn’t know much about. We wanted to create a shop that would help new and existing parents find something that will suit their lifestyles and that

Richard Smerdon with business partner (and wife) Laura they will be happy with.

Eventually we hope to expand and become a community hub – providing information on local resources for parents. Since opening, what has been your largest challenge and of course what has been your greatest success?

We are a new family company and have learned a lot about the industry, but it is still challenging remembering how all the strollers work, especially as we have so many brands! We have had to learn different areas of running a business, which has been hard work.

Our greatest success has been the reception we have received, everyone has been very positive about the store and what we are offering. You have recently relocated to a new showroom in Birmingham, what was the reason for this?

We loved the Kings Heath area, but the store was too small for the expanding range we wanted to show off. Our new shop in Edgbaston is beautiful and more open plan. What impact will this move have on your business?

It will positively affect us, we will be sad to say goodbye to the locals of our old shop, but the new one has ample parking for customers, is in a great location amongst other amazing retailers and is more central in Birmingham.

We are excited to be part of the Edgbaston Village market which takes place several times a year. How have you conveyed this news to your customers?

We are always looking for new brands and hope to expand our range. Please get in contact if any brands are reading this and interested in working with us at info@mybabystroller.co.uk

keep our followers updated and have some exciting marketing plans in place to drive awareness. You currently stock a wide selection of nursery product across a variety of categories, do you offer the same items in-store as you do on your website?

The new shop will give us an opportunity to expand our in-store collection. We have some key brands that we showcase, but if a customer is interested in a pram, we will get it in so they can have a look at it. How important is your website to the business?

Extremely, most of our business is done online. It is a key factor to showing our range off and delivering information that will be helpful to parents. We are constantly building it to try and make parents journeys easier. It is a great tool, but we are always pushing for customers to come in person, to see the items first hand. Does social media play a pivotal role for the business?

Yes! We are expanding our social media presence; it is so important. Most people will visit the website after seeing our posts. Do you feel that your customers are well researched on products that they are interested in prior to entering the store?

It is about 50/50. Some customers know which brands they are interested in and why, and just want to have a look at the physical stroller and find out more about it. Others have no idea what they are looking for and want a bit of guidance. This is what we needed when we were looking! What about car seats – do your customers have a good knowledge and understand the varying key car seat stages and requirements?

Again, this varies! Some have done lots of research. Others are hoping that you will help them.

We have a wide range of the different car seats and can make some helpful recommendations for anyone who isn’t sure. We have found that a lot of people fall back on a couple of main brands, but there are other options that may be better, so we like to show these off. At present, do you have a particular product category that is performing well for My Baby Stroller?

I would say double strollers particularly! There’s going to be lots of winter twins this year! Do you feel you are an expertise within a specific product category?

I think we have a broad range of knowledge across each category, through experience, double strollers, all terrain strollers and holiday strollers are probably where we are most confident. support by the brands that you stock, or is there anything further they could do to assist?

The support from the brands has been outstanding, they are very in touch and cheering small businesses like

ours on all the time. They are very quick to answer any queries and constantly keeping us knowledgeable and in the loop.

We loved the Kings Heath area, but the store was too small for the expanding range we wanted to show off. Our new shop in Edgbaston is beautiful and more open plan.

You have achieved a Trust Pilot score of 4.1 – how important is customer service to the business and to maintain the positive reviews that the business has secured?

We have only just started on trust pilot and are aiming for 5! We are proud of our current score – we are only a small team so it’s easy to keep a personal touch in each customer interaction and this is the feedback that we get.

I love chatting to the people that come in and you want to find out how they have gotten on later down the line. It’s really important to our business that we continue being a friendly company. Do you feel that you are well Are you currently looking for new brands to showcase in-store or on your website?

We are always looking for new brands and hope to expand our range.

Please get in contact if any brands are reading this and interested in working with us at info@ mybabystroller.co.uk How do you currently find new products that might offer a point of difference or keep up with current trends?

We are always researching through social media, Nursery Today and local baby groups to see what is popular. Will we see you at Harrogate this year? How important is this trade show to you as a business?

Yes, we will be there, we are excited to meet new leads and say hi to our existing brands. Finally, is there anything on the horizon for the business that you would like to share with Nursery Today readers?

Just that we are excited to open our new store on the 10th September, we hope to see lots of people around. We are looking to work with local nurseries and play groups and to continue expanding our range in our new beautiful store.