Car seats are a complicated category. They break into groupings by baby age and weight, portability versus semi-permanent placement, color, fabric, price point, features. Riding on top of all that is the essential purpose of safety for the defenseless. Babies ‘R Us has a giant assortment of 46 car seats in its freestanding stores. It is an impressive assortment, and an impressive set of choices for the shopper. In order to make an informed purchase, the consumer needs something to help distinguish each of these beyond their physical appearance.
Babies ‘R Us provides a clean car seat display. But it contains no information beyond a standard product name/price sign that is the exact same size for every one of the 46 choices. Could one or two or three of these merit a feature presentation, perhaps with some explanation as to why each is the best for its age group or the best for its price or the best for its function of providing a safe ride for infants, toddlers, or children up to 60 pounds? Maybe there is a good/better/best story in each of these categories? Maybe there is an inventory issue and one or more of these needs to be highlighted to move product.
Babies ‘R Us leaves it up to the shopper to figure it all out, and with 46 to choose from that creates a lot of opportunity for sales to fall through the cracks.
No telling means no selling. Here a great product assortment, probably an industry-leading assortment of car seats, is undercut by a lack of in-store marketing. Helping the consumer understand your assortment means helping your bottom line.
--Timothy Cohrs
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