Babycare supplies marketers must come up with new products and strategies on a regular basis -- to raise brands above the commodity herd. The fact that the pool of babies tends to hover near 4.0 million, year in, year out, further pressures competition. Yet this market is worth the scramble for share: Valued at $7.0 billion at retail, the market’s six categories (disposable diapers, wipes, bodycare preparations, feeding accessories, play & discovery toys, and pacifiers/teethers) hold rich potential for players with innovative wares and competitive savvy. This latest edition of a popular Packaged Facts report contains all the information that executives need to form aggressive gameplans for either entering the fray or enhancing their existing positions. Market drivers such as green or natural/organic products, and higher birth rates among ethnic minorities, are examined against the background of the troubled U.S. economy. Sales figures -- both historical and forecasted -- are covered, too, as are IRI brand share data, and Experian Simmons demographic data. Execs can also compare their battle profiles with those of California Baby, Hain-Celestial, Kimberly-Clark, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Seventh Generation, and others; each of these companies’ stances is discussed in detail. Throughout the report, Packaged Facts’ unique in-depth analysis is featured.
Read an excerpt from this report below.
Report MethodologyBabycare Supplies in the U.S.: Diapers, Bottles, Wipes and Feeding Accessories is based on information gathered from primary, secondary, and syndicated sources. Primary research involves on-site study of how babycare supplies are sold through retail stores; Packaged Facts also consults with industry executives. Secondary research involves the evaluation and comparison of data from mountains of articles found in financial, marketing, and retail publications, as well as on corresponding types of websites. Company literature, government agencies, and other sources also provide valuable secondary data.
Stats on market revenues and growth trends derive from all available data on the babycare supplies marketplace, be they quantitative or qualitative; that is, a broad range of societal and economic trends are factored in, to help shape the most accurate possible view of sales progress.
Brand share data are provided by Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), which taps directly into checkout scanners in the three main mass-market channels, which are supermarkets, chain drugstores, and mass merchandisers. IRI’s proprietary InfoScan Review is widely regarded as the “bible” for syndicated retail brand share. However, Wal-Mart and warehouse club data are excluded from the Review, per these retailers’ stipulations.
Analysis of consumers’ purchase and use of babycare supplies is based on quarterly surveys by Experian Simmons (formerly Simmons Market Research Bureau, Inc.), one of the leading compilers of demographic data in the United States.
The Bottom Line: What Your Company Really Gets...
With Babycare Supplies in the U.S.: Diapers, Bottles, Wipes and Feeding Accessories, you and your marketing team will gain a comprehensive overview of the ins and outs of the babycare supplies business. Most importantly, the report anchors babycare supplies in the broader HBC and societal contexts, as well as in the rapidly transforming retail scene. Such valuable qualitative perspective is supported with extensive hard data presented in well-organized tables and charts.
How Your Company Will Benefit from This Report...
If your company is already an established player in babycare supplies, this report is bound to freshen and strengthen your marketing plan. If your company is newly targeting the prospective or new baby-household, then this report is a great intro to the babycare supplies business, and thus a launching pad for a successful venture.
The whole team -- brand managers, research and development pros, ad agencies and media departments, database managers and librarians, venture capitalists, new business specialists -- all are unified by the cutting-edge analysis in Babycare Supplies in the U.S.: Diapers, Bottles, Wipes and Feeding Accessories.
Market Insights: A Selection From The Report
Busy Mothers Buying CPG via Direct Sales Media
To state the obvious, many types of products are selling well over the Internet. It may surprise some observers that consumer packaged goods (CPG), inclusive of babycare supplies, but not limited to them, are increasingly purchased direct, via Internet websites, in particular, but also via mail-order catalogs, mobile, etc. One’s immediate reaction might be that that practice is extravagant, given that CPG is available at local mass-retail outlets, from malls to supermarkets, from specialty boutiques to the corner convenience store. Also, e-tailers offer discounts, though rarely deep ones. But in an age of traffic jams, crowded stores, and high prices at the gas pump, the delivery of large cartons of disposable diapers, or of quantities of any babycare product, can save lots of money, time, and effort. E-tailers, for example, routinely offer special discounts, though not deep ones; and for orders exceeding specified dollar amounts - $50, $100... - shipping is often free.
Shopping from home translates into more time for family life, or for recreation. Brandweek (issue of May 12, 2010) has presented AC Nielsen data that peg U.S. consumers’ total online spending at $340.0 billion in 2010, a sum the firm projects will jump 40% to $475.0 billion in 2012. Online purchases of CPG will start the same two years at $12.0 billion, and push upward by 33%, to $16.0 billion. The CPG share of all e-tail dollars will therefore be roughly maintained at less than 4% during 2010-2012.
The fact that mothers may be turning more and more to direct sales media for babycare supplies and other CPG, is highly positive, because careful shoppers may save money for impulse add-ons on behalf of Baby - a toy, perhaps, or a new bottle, a fresh pack of pacifiers, an organic baby shampoo, or whatever - to complement those huge cartons of disposable diapers. In addition, the overall babycare supplies market will benefit from the fact that even e-discounted items will likely bring in higher price-points than the same deep-discounted ones at Wal-Mart or other mass retailers.
U.S. Market for Babycare Supplies Forecast to Increase More than $1 Billion by 2015, finds latest Packaged Facts report
New York, June 29, 2010 — The $7 billion retail market for babycare supplies in the United States will continue its strong annual growth with an increase of 20% predicted between 2009-2015, according to Babycare Supplies in the U.S.: Diapers, Bottles, Wipes and Feeding Accessories, 5th Edition by market research publisher Packaged Facts. The growth translates to gains exceeding $1 billion as the market approaches $9 billion by the end of the forecast period and surpasses the comparatively solid $577 million increase achieved from 2005-2009.
“There are several million households with children under the age of two and the growth we anticipate for babycare supplies can be considered fair-to-good. However, what’s truly exciting is the large dollar base, which ensures that even slight progress translates into substantial dollar levels,” says Don Montuori, publisher of Packaged Facts. “For example, in 2010 a single percentage-point of increase could equal $71 million.”
The report breaks sales figures into six product categories. In descending order of retail dollar size, they are: disposable diapers/training pants, baby wipes/moist towelettes, baby bodycare products, nursing/feeding accessories, play & discovery (infant) toys, and pacifiers/teethers (a.k.a., soothing accessories). The best-performing categories during 2005-2009 were baby wipes/moist towelettes, baby bodycare products, and nursing/feeding accessories. Each achieved retail dollar growth totaling around 20% during the four-year period. The disposable diapers category was sluggish, advancing only 4% over that same four years. Meanwhile the volatile play and discovery toys category, which experienced double-digit ups and downs, had a net increase of just 1%. Pacifiers/teethers, the smallest category, lost 3% of its retail dollars over the span.
Unsurprisingly, many consumers turned to the value-tier of babycare supplies brands—as well as to private labels—during the recent recession. Packaged Facts anticipates that some consumers will stick with these lower-cost alternatives even as the economy improves. Nevertheless, as Packaged Facts predicted in the previous edition, the sales of luxury goods hit hard by the recession appear to be regaining ground as of June 2010. Improved disposable income will especially drive sales in the wipes/moist towelettes, baby bodycare, feeding accessories, and play & discovery toys categories as consumers once again satisfy their desires for premium and even prestige-priced babycare supplies. Purchases of natural, organic, and green products are also expected to continue propelling the market substantially.
Beyond traditional retail stores, the expansion of the online channel has immense implications for the babycare supplies market, as evidence by the performance of companies such as Quidsi, Inc./Diapers.com, which Packaged Facts estimates will have at least $100 million in sales during 2010. Meanwhile, the relative maturity of the babycare supplies market creates such an intense competitive climate for marketers that those that can afford to target foreign territories are setting up or expanding operations outside the U.S. For marketers with enough ingenuity and willingness to adapt their products to smaller, less expensive pack sizes, developing countries such as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) are fertile ground, according to Packaged Facts.
Babycare Supplies in the U.S.: Diapers, Bottles, Wipes and Feeding Accessories, 5th Edition is the latest market study in a popular series written by renowned Packaged Facts analyst Timothy Dowd. The report examines the consumer marketplace for products intended to facilitate the care, feeding, and mental development of the littlest Americans. Packaged Facts estimates the retail dollar sales for each of the six major product categories, as transacted through all U.S. outlets.
About Packaged Facts - Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, publishes market intelligence on a wide range of consumer market topics, including consumer goods and retailing, foods and beverages, demographics, pet products and services, and financial products. Packaged Facts also offers a full range of custom research services.