CAR SEATS:
RETAILER PROFILE ONLINE4BABY
Take a seat Nursery Today had the pleasure to question Online4Baby’s Managing Director, Christy Foster to find out her views on car seats, the second hand market, trends and current consumer demand. Are your customers looking at car seats taking into consideration safety elements before aesthetics? Safety, as it should be, is generally the main consideration when customers are purchasing car seats from us but aesthetics and function come a close second. The investigation by Panorama last year into the products dubbed ‘killer car seats’ on Amazon highlighted the risks posed by buying cheap products from general websites and the lack of QC checks on products from some retailers. These had been flagged by Which? several years earlier but had continued to be sold on multiple marketplaces which is worrying from a child safety perspective.
Do you feel that as an industry we need to remind consumers of the dangers of buying a second hand car seat?
Absolutely and I’m not sure the risks are understood by the vast majority of consumers as the laws around the subject are not clear. You can go on marketplaces like Gumtree and find vast numbers of second hand car seats for sale and there is no way of checking whether they are still safe to use so I think as an industry we need to educate people of the dangers. It’s also
32
nursery today
“ We’ve seen
a move to ca r se ats w hi ch co ver multiple stag es as peop le seek to save co sts or w ant a more ec o friend ly so luti on to pu rc ha sing multiple se ats over th e ch ild ’s lifet ime. ”
up to the government to look at the legal aspects and put suitable laws in place to safeguard consumers.
Do you feel as an industry we are sending out a universal message with regard to car seats?
I think overall we do however I think there is still some work to do around the different testing metrics and guides on age and weight ranges. There is definitely confusion over the different tests carried out on car seats and the variance in testing across countries such as Germany and Sweden so it would be great to standardise these to provide a simple rating to allow customers to make an informed decision.
Have you experienced any specific consumer trends with regard to car seats?
We’ve seen a move to car seats which cover multiple stages as people seek to
save costs or want a more eco friendly solution to purchasing multiple seats over the child’s lifetime. Also, with the recommendations around having children rear-facing for longer, we’ve also seen a shift to interchangeable seats and demand for rotating seats increase significantly. Colour wise, more practical colours such as blacks and greys have always been popular and we don’t see that changing moving forward.
Is this a sector where your customers research online prior to purchase?
Yes, we see a lot of community-based questions around safety and fitting so it appears as though customers do their own research prior to purchase. There’s also the obligatory price checking process and we get a lot of questions around warranties and vehicle compatibility too.