At FanFinders, we’ve been looking for ways to support our industry during these challenging times.
Then it hit us. Why don’t we see what our Your Baby Club network has to say?
Over the past few weeks, we’ve surveyed over 5,000 mums in the UK about their changing lives, behaviours, and buying habits since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
To ensure this research proved helpful for our market, we even asked for input from brands on the burning questions they really wanted to ask.
Here is what we discovered:
Shifting priorities
73% of mums are purchasing their baby products online through Amazon, Facebook, high street retailers, local independent shops and supermarket websites.
Clothes/baby clothes and home improvement products are seen as most important after food shopping (TV/entertainment and toys round out the list), while more than a quarter of mums are now likely to buy from an unfamiliar brand.
Over 35% of mums also admit to bulk buying food during the pandemic and a further 30% are spending more than usual on products like food, clothes, luxuries and toys.
Online to the fore
Inside homes up and down the country, the pandemic has thrust parents into the role of part-time teachers and over 40% of mums are choosing online resources including learning games, quizzes, tests, videos, as teaching aids.
With ‘lack of socialisation with family members outside the household’ one of the biggest concerns to emerge alongside baby’s health, staying connected digitally was an additional trend.
Nearly 78% of mums think online connections with other mums are important to stay reassured during pregnancy and motherhood, while social platforms, video-calls with friends and family, online courses, online forums and their favourite brand websites were the biggest sources of support.
Interestingly, mums are keeping with more traditional methods for entertaining the kids. Over 50% said they are playing games as a family to keep their kids occupied.
What do mums want from brands and retailers?
Nearly 68% of mums rank ease of shopping and wealth of information on a retailer’s website as ‘extremely important’ and 75% consider ‘price and value’ the most important factor when making a purchase
95% of mums consider recommendations and online reviews the biggest influences on purchasing, with 42% choosing online reviews as the first port of call.
From brands, mums want to see offers and deals, loyalty rewards, discount for online purchases, competitions and information related to COVID-19 and pregnancy, such as risks.
For retailers, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive about the ‘incredible job being done in difficult circumstances’; but ‘making it easier to return items’; ‘promoting businesses clearly online’; and ‘keeping up the regular sales, offers and discounts’ were all highlighted as desirable.
Over the coming weeks, we will be sharing more insights from our surveys, so visit again soon.
For any questions about the data, to learn more about how FanFinders can help your brand or to be sent insights direct, contact sam@fanfinders.com.