After doing business online for the past 11 years, BabyUniverse, a subsidiary of The Parent Co., has gone multichannel with the release of its new catalog.
The 44-page book, which first dropped in early April, sells cribs, strollers, car seats, baby furniture, bedding, toys, safety products, diaper bags, organic products and a variety of other baby-related items. The product selection covers newborns, babies, toddlers and even “big kids.”
“We felt this was a great opportunity for The Parent Co. brand and for the BabyUniverse brand,” says Sheliah Gilliland, spokesperson for The Parent Co.
Gilliland says the company is planning a second drop later this year, but emphasized that these first two drops are a test. She would not provide the size of the mailings.
Based in Denver, CO, The Parent Co. was born out of the October 2007 merger between BabyUniverse and eToys Direct, an online toy retailer which has had a catalog since 2003.
The launch of the new catalog coincides with a redesign of the BabyUniverse Website and a whole new look and feel for the BabyUniverse brand. Gilliland says the new BabyUniverse is designed to be “more modern … more appealing to today’s mothers, particularly young moms who live in upscale suburban neighborhoods.” She says the company has placed a strong emphasis on giving the catalog and Website the same look and feel, as well as on including mechanisms so that the catalog and Website drive traffic to each other.
As part of the brand overhaul, BabyUniverse.com has been enhanced with customer-friendly tools that make it easier to navigate and make purchases. Visitors can view products in a variety of ways, including by brand and by category. In addition the site includes up to 30 new “boutiques” — subsites focused on a single vendor’s products — as well as a gift registry.
In addition to the BabyUniverse.com and eToys.com Websites, The Parent Co. also sells personalized dolls and accessories through its My Twinn.com Website; brand-name baby, toddler and maternity products through its DreamtimeBaby.com Website; and luxury baby items through its PoshTots.com and PoshLiving.com Websites. It also operates three content-only sites, BabyTV.com, PoshCravings.com and ePregnancy.com.