ABC's new program promotes independent retailers
ABC's new program promotes independent retailers
By Gerri Hunt -- Kids Today, 5/1/2009 12:00:00 AM
All Baby & Child, the parent company of the ABC Kids Expo, has developed a new program, Baby Product Experts, to promote and support independent specialty stores in the juvenile industry. They have also launched an accompanying Web site.
All Baby & Child is providing the major source of funding for this initiative on behalf of juvenile products specialty stores in North America.
"The goal of this program is to help drive traffic into juvenile products specialty stores," said Ken Goore, chairman of All Baby & Child Inc.
"The mission of All Baby & Child has and continues to be the united goal of promoting the continued growth and prosperity of the independent juvenile products retailer and their supporting manufacturers. Our development and generous funding for this program fulfills this mission by enabling specialty stores to compete on a more equitable basis with their competitors."
Baby Product Experts is an association made up of hundreds of infant and teen furniture and accessory specialty stores throughout the United States.
Members are stores that are locally owned and provide additional services often not available at nationally owned chains. To be considered for membership a store must fit into one of these four categories:
-
Full Line Baby Store, which carries furniture, bedding, mattresses, baby gear, gifts and accessories, plus other services like layaway, financing, gift wrapping, etc.
-
Boutique Store, which is typically smaller in size and might not carry all the different categories of products and services of a full-line store.
-
Furniture Only Store, which carries only furniture, mattresses and decor.
-
Baby Gear Store, which specializes in gear and accessories.
Baby Product Experts certifies prospective member stores by having an independent service, familiar with the juvenile industry, shop the stores to evaluate them on numerous qualitative and quantitative criteria.
Each store is graded on the following categories: telephone etiquette, store appearance, associate greeting, product knowledge and customer service. The evaluations are used not only to certify a store but also to improve the stores' future performance.
Certification is granted only after receiving outstanding scores. The dedicated specialty store Web site will receive traffic from their mini-site that will be hosted on the well-known and high-traffic BabyCenter informational Web site; this will assist consumers in locating a Baby Product Experts store near them.
Detailed store information is listed on the site, such as showroom size, major brands carried, and services offered. This information will allow a customer to learn more about a store before leaving home. The Web site also features a consumer review section.
Stores pay a $150 annual fee to be included on the site. All Baby & Child is offering a special until May 31 of $100. All Baby & Child pays for all other expenses related to the program.
For more information on this program, contact Jacque Sternquist, marketing manager at (630) 410-8050, jacque@theabcshow.com, or by visiting babyproductexperts.com.
We would love your feedback!
