The evolution of The Babies’ Room

The Richardsons find success recycling a business

-- Kids Today, 2/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

The Babies’s Room hasn’t always been as it is today. Tara and Jonathan Richardson bought Weecycle (a local consignment shop) in 2003. Weecycle originally opened in 1997 and had gathered a faithful following.

“Customer requests for products were what actually drove us to open The Babies’ Room,” Jonathan said. “First they asked if we could get Medela breast pumps, then it was cribs, and before you know it we had a second business selling new product.”

The business has grown exponentially since the couple bought it and opened The Babies’ Room in 2005.

“The Weecycle side of the business is really what’s sustained us these last few months,” Jonathan admitted. “Customers still needed the staples, like clothing, which is the majority of our Weecycle business. During the crunch we went six to seven weeks without selling a new product.”

The consignment area is located in the back of the store, with the new product in The Babies’ Room, located up front and set up in vignettes.

The store’s focus is on infant/toddler furniture, and though the Richardsons do have two lines of youth furniture they can order from, they just don’t have the demand right now.

“We don’t really have room to display youth right now. We tried selling it with just a few pieces on the floor and we just didn’t get a return on it,” Tara said. “When we talk about expanding we do talk about growing the youth business.”

To reach their diverse customer base (consumers looking for like-new clothing and first-time parents searching for a crib and car seat) the couple uses Constant Contact. In the past they had tried everything from print and yellow pages to radio but last year they dropped everything and focused on email marketing.

“Our customer base is eclectic,” Tara said. “They love the mix of consignment and new product. Because of our location here in Gainesville, with a couple of big teaching hospitals and the University of Florida, we have everyone from the upper echelon to the young, single mom looking for a bargain shopping in our store.”

They support local Mom groups and clubs; hold two to three in-store events each year in conjunction with The Safe Kids Coalition; birthday party events; and a lot of cross promoting with all of these groups.

“We were lucky in that Weecycle had a very passionate following,” Jonathan said. “Word-of-mouth has really been a strong traffic driver for us, especially when we bought the business and opened The Babies’ Room.”

When they added the new products and business, the Richardsons knocked a hole in the wall of their existing store and expanded, nearly doubling their selling space. At that time 30% of the business was in new product; today that’s up to about 60%.

“After our first expansion, customers started asking if we carried swing sets,” Tara said. “We were coming to the end of our lease and the expanded space still wasn’t meeting our needs, so we moved, literally, across the parking lot and doubled our space to 4,000 square feet and a large outdoor area that would accommodate the customer-requested swing sets and outdoor centers.”

Since moving into the space they’ve “chopped off” parts of the backroom area for more selling space. The offices became the metals department and they added a kids’ playroom. The playroom, which has a Dutch door that keeps the kids contained but not shut off from the store, also has a train table, DVDs and an ever-changing assortment of toys. In fact, Tara says it’s not uncommon for kids to call it the “toy store” and to protest when they have to leave.

“We’re in a perpetual state of change,” Tara said. “We’re always looking for property and do plan to keep growing and expanding.”

The couple knows they’re one of the fortunate companies, not only to still be in business but to have experienced growth. Three other local stores have recently gone out of business.

Weecycle mainly sells used children’s and maternity clothing, strollers, bedding and some cribs.

“We can sell one out of every three cribs that come in to Weecycle,” Tara said. “And we don’t sell used car seats at all; I’m totally against that.”

Thanks to the consignment side of the business, technology has become important. With each client bringing in about 30 pieces of clothing it was imperative to have a system that could keep track of this type of inventory.

The retailer also is working on its Web presence. There is a Weecycle Web site, but The Babies’ Room site is a work in progress as they search for a dependable designer. They want to incorporate a baby registry on the site, although Tara says even then they’ll still do the in-store registry by hand.

“We do a lot of baby registries and we do it personally, walking around with the customer. They love that,” she said. “We’ll do it after or before store hours or by appointment, however they want it. We’re the only place locally that gives them the time and talks to them about what they really need and what the differences are between the various brands and products.”

The online registry would make life easier though. Now Tara personally emails friends and family members with the registries and is constantly answering questions and sending updates—one at a time.

Personal service is not a catch phrase the Richardsons just toss around.

“When a customer comes in to look we don’t actually try to sell them that day,” Tara said. “We tell them to go do their research. Nine out of 10 come back to us.”

Jonathan said they even have maps to other stores printed, along with a listing of what they carry.

“We sell on our virtues,” he said. “We give customers as much information as possible and let them decide where to shop. If you tell them how to get to other stores, what they’re going to find when they get there and they find you to be true to your word they’ll trust you.”

The Richardsons and their staff take time with each customer to teach them about the products, especially when it comes to one of their major categories, infant carriers.

“We have the largest selection in north central Florida and we demo all of them,” Tara said. “We’re introducing a program to rent them as well. Being in a small town with a university, people do a lot of walking and carrying their children. Carriers are big sellers. And, with the ones that don’t sell we can use them as rentals and still make money.”

A big part of being able to sell these products is extensive employee training. The couple solicits manufacturers’ help in training as much as possible and they also have a computer set up with all of the training videos for products. All products are demonstrated and shoppers are encouraged to use the products in the store, whether it’s a sling or carrier or stroller. And, rather than sell an ill-fitting carrier, Tara and Jonathan encourage pregnant moms to purchase their carriers after the baby is born so they can try it on with the baby to see what works best for both of them.

Aside from carriers, the store offers furniture, strollers, car seats, bedding, accessories, gifts, clothing and more. The three top-selling categories are furniture, strollers and carriers. The Gainesville store also has a whole section devoted to the Florida Gators.

Like many retailers, the couple says their biggest daily challenge is on-time furniture delivery and dealing with staff issues.

“We stress over an unhappy mother because our business is based on word-of-mouth,” Jonathan said. “One unhappy mother can spread the word. We do all we can to avoid that. It is not uncommon for us to drive five hours to get furniture from New Baby Products.”

“Delivery is getting better,” Tara said. “But, it’s still and issue and it’s not just one manufacturer. It’s not fair to make a mother wait for that.”

The Richardsons say the best idea they ever had was being responsive to what their customers wanted.

“I can point to just about anything we carry and it was a direct result of a customer request,” Jonathan said. “Sometimes it may even be a brand that we don’t know that much about and two or three customers will ask for it and we go out of our way to bring it in.”

Goals for the store this year are to “keep the doors open” and get the Web site up and running with an online registry. Tara said the 10-year goal is to move to a larger location.

This on-the-go, busy couple (who are also parents of an 8, 6 and 3 year old and two puppies) has found success and they credit part of it to advice given by industry veteran Peter Komroff, owner of Baby Love.

“Peter said, 'Do your best. Always do what you say you’re going to do and try to treat people as fairly as you can and you’ll be fine,’” Jonathan said.

Tara adds, “You also have to get involved with a networking group. Anywhere there’s networking it’s good.”

Florida Gator fans will find everything they need for their youngest fan at The Babies’ Room.

Thanks to customer requests, and an expanded outdoor area, the Richardsons added swing sets and play centers to their product mix.