Baby on the Web - department stores target online purchases for babies - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

DSN Retailing Today, June 4, 2001

Ask anyone involved in the business of providing baby products for the home, and they'll tell you it isn't parents they're after but grandmothers, aunts and uncles.

Non-generating family members often are the targets because new parents are frugal; after all, their money's being spent on diapers and other disposables babies dispose their way through so often.

And e-tailers are making it easy for relatives, particularly those who are geographically dispersed, to find and send presents. For clicks-and-mortar retailers, getting purchases from parents is better accomplished in the store since they're likely to stock up on diapers and other necessities if they're buying home products on a shopping trip.

E-tailers provided plenty of home products among their layette-on-line selections. Wal-Mart has a selection called Newborn Necessities with popular products like car seats and monitors. In the home section, Walmart.com offers a baby positioner on the low end at $7.96 and a three-piece crib set for $39.96 under the heading Nursery Bedding. In the middle is a four-piece Winnie the Pooh bed set at $34.96.

BlueLight.com has a more extensive collection of home products for baby under multiple headings in the baby selection. Prices in furniture range from $9.99 for a booster and stepstool to $119.99 for a Cosco Contura Crib. Bedding ranges from $4.99 for Blues Clues and Elmo pillowcases to a $39.99 Sealy crib mattress from Kolcraft.

Of the Big Three discounters, Target's site offered the biggest selection of baby home. While Kmart's site offered a single crib mattress, Target's offered three, ranging in price from $24.98 to $49.88 for a Sealy Crib Natural Rest mattress. Top price point furniture products included an Eddie Bauer Play Yard and a Graco Safari Open Top Swing, both for $99.99. The depth of Target's selection is suggested by its offering not one but two furniture categories. The second, small furniture offers a price range from $39.98 for a Primarly Gymini Activity Gym to a $9.99 booster and step stool.

As might be expected, the mid-tier operators took things a step or two up in price point and offered a greater range of product. Sears.com, for example, included a Simmons crib selling for $329.99 in furniture, while sheets topped out at $9.99 for a two-piece Little Wonders set and mattresses reached $89.99 for a Sealy Baby Posturepedic model.

JCPenney has won a reputation for its Web site's home component and doesn't skimp when it comes to the wee folk, with products ranging up to a Simmons Convertible Crib for $499. Its Sealy Posturepedic Crib Mattress hits a price point of $100. JCPenney offers baby bedding by collection; a Heritage fitted crib mattress is priced at $16.