Online4Baby

Retail

matters

A warm hello this February from Online4Baby’s Managing Director Christy Foster! The days are getting lighter and the weather is getting a little warmer as we say goodbye to a very long January.

Christy Foster, Managing Director, cmf@online4baby.com

January has been such a great month for O4B, full of planning for the year ahead, including exciting new product launches, brand launches, and marketing activity. After many in-depth strategy meetings we have our finalised trading calendar in place and as a team, we feel extremely confident about 2022. We are going into this year incredibly prepared in comparison to earlier years, we are ready to show a significant uplift in performance and produce a year like no other!

This January, we introduced our new CMO, Tom Fotheringham to the team. It has been an absolute pleasure to bring him into the nursery industry and I speak for myself and on behalf of my whole team when I say, we are very much looking forward to Tom becoming a large part of Online4Baby’s future success and are very eager to work alongside him as he leads us into 2022. We have also had a brilliant month, going live with our January Sale campaign, this is always a great month for us but as we have made it our mission to step up our activity across all our marketing channels this year, we are seeing brilliant results this February.

I’m sure like many of us, I was very pleased to hear that lockdown restrictions are lifting, it is time to get back to normal. Retail has taken a massive hit during the pandemic, and we have all had to learn to adjust. I’m still really excited for the future of retail, both online and offline. Now that lockdown restrictions are coming to an end, and with lead times for delivery hopefully improving over the coming months, we will hopefully see a surge in the retail industry, with shoppers out in force, both in-person and online.

Lockdown restrictions lifting is as relevant to the high-street shops as it is to e-commerce retail brands, in my opinion. It is so important that your e-commerce brand store is exemplary and able to withstand the return to in-person shopping. There are a few ways that online stores can maintain this relationship with their customers without physical shops, however, it means hiring great talent that is up to the task and can help manage the community base you have built. Aspects such as willingness to show your brand’s personal side is a big one, having the ability to speak directly to your customers through social media will be key for us this year.

We started doing Facebook Lives in January 2021, as we wanted to build a better rapport with our customer base. Our main aim was to be able to give them the advice they needed and keep up to date with them and their little ones growing up! Going live on our Facebook channel was the perfect way to showcase our products and allow our audience to be able to look and see how the products are used. We can answer our audience’s questions in real-time around how to fit products, build them and recommend the best items based on a customer’s individual preferences. We are also able to chat about what is happening in their lives and maintain a great relationship with them. Our brilliant Facebook Live presenters do an amazing job of Lockdown restrictions lifting is as relevant to the high-street shops as it is to “ e-commerce retail brands, in my opinion. It is so important that your e-commerce brand store is exemplary and able to withstand the return to in-person shopping. “

representing the business and they really have become a friendly face for our brand. They have built an exceptional community of parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, and more, through our social media channels.

I would suggest investing in this method of community-building in 2022. Some best practice advice we have found is to always broadcast for a good amount of time, from our experience around 20-30 minute streams work well with our audience! This gives them time to engage with your brand, ask questions and even have group conversations with other customers around the products being presented. Another important tip is to be consistent. We go live most weekdays and always at the same time, this will not only help your audience become familiar with your streaming schedule but will also keep your content fresh and new. Engaging with your audience is an obvious one, encourage your viewers to comment and help start conversations, this can be about the products you are presenting to how they are feeling today. My final piece of advice would be to invest in your equipment; unlike short-form video, long-form video does require a higher-resolution and high-quality connection to keep viewers watching for longer, so make sure you do your research and shop around for the best products for you and your business needs.

As we are looking to improve our Facebook Live and video strategy ourselves, including more engaging, conversation-driven content pieces that will work alongside our more productfocused live content, we are also keen to improve our CRM journey for our customers. This is something we are very excited to work on this year and are eager to create a seamless and personalized journey. Our goal is to transform this channel into a really valuable tool we can use to further improve our brandcustomer relationship.

To help us on this exciting new mission we are looking for a talented CRM and Design Executive to take our CRM activity to the next level! If this sounds like something you would be interested in please get in touch with our HR Manager, Kellie Duffy at kduffy@onlinebaby.com for more information.

Spotlight On Ergobaby’s Partner Hub

The Ergobaby Partner Hub has been specially designed to provide extra support to all Ergobaby and Baby Tula stockists.

The Ergobaby and Baby Tula Partner Hub is a dedicated website which gives an outlook on the 2022 collection highlights for both Ergobaby and Baby Tula including latest product innovations, a B2B-Shop for easier order placement and the Online Training Academy that provides you with everything you need to get to grips with the brand’s latest launches.

Supplementary to your usual service from the sales team, the Partner Hub is intuitive and user friendly and can be accessed at a time that is convenient for you and your business. And while it will never replace the benefits of face-to-face contact, the added value and accessibility of the Hub provides all the tools for successful sales!

Content Modules

This intuitive and interactive online platform shares product information, USP’s etc. for the latest innovation from both Ergobaby and Baby Tula. For example, explore the new Ergobaby Omni Dream and Omni Breeze carriers: from a close-up look at the design of their unique SoftFlex Mesh and SoftTouch Cotton fabrics to their key features and how you can leverage these to encourage more sales. Learn more about Ergobaby’s Mission and Vision and what sets them apart from other brands, along with their pillars of product excellence of comfort, function and quality.

Online Retailer Assets Packs

You can download the latest virtual product catalogue collection and retailer kits with materials and inspiration for your social media channels, online shops, such as product images, banners, videos, blog content and much more.

Social media is a vital way of increasing consumer awareness of a new launch quickly and Supplementary to your usual service from the sales team, the Partner Hub is intuitive and user friendly and can be accessed at a time that is convenient for you and your business

as an owned channel you can ensure all key messages are conveyed. It is also a key tool for educating consumers on new product usage; whilst Ergobaby work hard on making all products intuitive and easy-to-use, it’s worth prioritising education to ensure products are used safely and properly.

Ergobaby Training Academy

The team at Ergobaby believe that sustainable sales success starts with effective product and sales training!

With Ergobaby’s web-based, smartphone friendly and interactive training programme they empower you and your sales team to demonstrate their products with confidence, understand their key benefits and get the latest information about the product range. Train new team members or refresh your knowledge at any time to be ready to engage with your customers by demonstrating product.

Their interactive training programme will lift your sales teams’ skills to the next level and frequent updates will ensure that you always have the latest news on their products and brand!

B2B Shop

Log into their interactive platform to view in live time your inventory report to check availability and place orders, so you never go out of stock on your best-selling lines.

You can browse the full Ergobaby and Baby Tula product range across categories, select the products you need to replenish your inventory and get your order delivered faster than ever before.

The new B2B online shop gives you direct access to all available inventory so you can secure each and every sales opportunity in your store and/or online.

For access to the Ergobaby Partner Hub contact your account managers.

North - Ali Bentley abentley@ergobaby.co.uk 07852 154 342

South - Niki Lawrence nlawrence@ergobaby.co.uk 07494 812 887

or contact Ergobaby via:

service@ergobaby.co.uk