All Baby & Child launches program to promote independent specialty stores
Web site will direct consumers to local 'Baby Product Experts'
Gerri Hunt -- Kids Today, 4/21/2009 7:32:00 AM
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – All Baby & Child, the parent company of the ABC Kids Expo, has developed a new program, Baby Product Experts, to promote and support independent specialty stores in the juvenile industry. They have also launched an accompanying Web site.
All Baby & Child is providing the major source of funding for this initiative on behalf of juvenile products specialty stores in North America.
“The goal of this program is to help drive traffic into juvenile products specialty stores,” said Ken Goore, chairman of All Baby & Child, Inc.
“The mission of All Baby & Child has and continues to be the united goal of promoting the continued growth and prosperity of the independent juvenile products retailer and their supporting manufacturers. Our development and generous funding for this program fulfills this mission by enabling specialty stores to compete on a more equitable basis with their competitors.”
Baby Product Experts is an association made up of hundreds of infant and teen furniture and accessory specialty stores throughout the United States.
Members are stores that are locally owned and provide additional services often not available at nationally owned chains. To be considered for membership a store must fit into one of these four categories:
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Full Line Baby Store, which carries furniture, bedding, mattresses, baby gear, gifts and accessories, plus other services like layaway, financing, gift wrapping, etc.
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Boutique Store, which is typically smaller in size and might not carry all the different categories of products and services of a full-line store.
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Furniture Only Store, which carries only furniture, mattresses and decor.
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Baby Gear Store, which specializes in gear and accessories.
Baby Product Experts certifies prospective member stores by having an independent service, familiar with the juvenile industry, shop the stores to evaluate them on numerous qualitative and quantitative criteria.
Each store is graded on the following categories: telephone etiquette, store appearance, associate greeting, product knowledge and customer service. The evaluations are used not only to certify a store but also to improve the stores future performance.
Certification is granted only after receiving outstanding scores. The dedicated specialty store Web site will receive traffic from their minisite that will be hosted on the well-known and high- traffic BabyCenter informational Web site; this will assist consumers in locating a Baby Product Experts store near them.
Detailed store information is listed on the site, such as showroom size, major brands carried, and services offered. This information is will allow a customer to learn more about a store before leaving home. The Web site also features a consumer review section.
Stores pay a $150 annual fee to be included on the site. All Baby & Child is offering a special until May 31 of just $100. All Baby & Child pays for all other expenses related to the program.
So far, the program has been getting rave reviews from the participating retailers.
“One of the best things that came out of the program was the mystery shopper. Hearing a consumer’s unbiased point of view helped our store focus in on specific areas,” said Maxine Guerrera, from Rattles and Rhymes in Athens, Ga. “I am excited to be a part of the launch of Baby Product Experts, I feel confident this program will help drive traffic to the specialty stores”
Jim and Jana Dagerman, from Dagerman’s Just For Kids/Baby News in Las Vegas, are eagerly anticipating how much foot traffic the Web site will generate in their store.
“The secret shopper process was easy and beneficial to all of our employees, in attitude and willingness to show off our store,” they said. “We would like to thank the ABC board for the foresight in creating this program and the support for all of the stores.”
And Larry and Yvette Muller from Baby’s 1st Furniture in Houston are thrilled as well.
“We haven’t been this excited about a new program for specialty stores in a very long time. Baby Product Experts is the perfect tool to get us in front of our customers and legitimize ourselves to the public,” said the Mullers. “Because we truly are ‘experts’ in so many ways, this is a way to let the consumer know where they can go for answers and quality products. The mystery shopping experience also added a great dimension to this program, it kept us on our toes and made us realize what we should be every day to every customer - it was a great reminder.”
For further information on this program, contact Jacque Sternquist, marketing manager at (630) 410-8050, jacque@theabcshow.com, or by visiting www.babyproductexperts.com.
