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Retailers are increasingly offering digital upgrades to their marriage registries and babies, in response to the changing tastes of consumers and the competition from digital native startups. This means adding new digital tools such as chatbots, offering alternatives to traditional gifts, and integrating in-store mobile shopping options.
Walmart yesterday announced the establishment of a new baby registry section within the Walmart app. As part of the redesign, Walmart added a chatbot that will ask future parents questions about their due date, the bad of their baby and the type of theme they prefer for the nursery (including if they want a non-badist theme). The bot will then use this information to pre-populate its registry with the suggested elements.
"The time when creating a baby registry meant giving up the store meant walking around," Ashlee Neuman, deputy editor of The Bump, said in an email. Today, they are likely to register on several sites. In addition, they may want gifts that are not found on the shelves of big box stores.
Then there is the Amazon effect: the e-commerce site has also become an increasingly popular place for registries, with some surveys reporting that almost a third of respondents are turning to Amazon to create marriage registers or buy baby products. For example, big box retailers must also find a way to differentiate themselves from Amazon's innumerable aisles, as well as newer startups that allow buyers to create records by extracting items from multiple e-commerce sites.
In response, retailers are investing in slimmer digital shopping capabilities to make the registration process as simple as possible and, in some cases, badociate with startups that threaten to take a share of their business. market.
Weddings and baby showers are two of the most popular occasions for which buyers have traditionally created records. According to an badysis conducted by Babylist, the baby registry start-up, the average value of a baby registry created on its website last year was $ 2,100 and contained 121 items . And in a survey published by The Knot's wedding website last year, respondents indicated an average total order of $ 4,853 for their wedding registers, which contained 125 items.
Big box stores like Target, Walmart and Bed Bath & Beyond (as well as its children's store, Buy Buy Baby) are traditional steps in the process of registering for weddings and prenatal parties. Thus, discussions on how to respond to both occasions should be side by side. According to Neuman, the demand for cash, charitable gifts, gift cards and services rather than gifts has increased, but even more so for marriage registers.
"Many brides and grooms will find that they do not absolutely need a new kitchenware or high end kitchen and prefer to spend their money on shared experiences – but when you are expecting a baby, there is no need to lose sight of the fact that you are going to need a lot of things, "said Neuman.
Target updated its registration process a few years ago, incorporating Pinterest's goal into its registry experience, so customers could point their apps to an item of their choice Automatically add to their registry. And last year, he partnered with Honeyfund – a start-up that allows couples to request contributions for their honeymoon and other experiences instead of gifts – to allow couples to add honeymoon funds to their Target registry. Crate and Barrel also announced last year a partnership with the start-up of Zola marriage registries to sell Crate and Barrel products directly to the Zola website.
Zola opened its first brick-and-mortar store in New York this year, a pop-up that will last until April. The company's CEO and founder, Shan-Lyn Ma, said the company was focused on using technology to help customers easily add items to an online registry in a virtual environment. Its application uses near field communication, which allows customers to put their phone over an item to add to a register, instead of scanning a barcode.
Zola, which started only as a wedding registry site in 2013, also offers wedding planning services, such as an online directory of vendors and invitations designs. This is where Ma think they can impose themselves in front of supermarkets.
"I think we've seen many department store retailers trying to copy some of Zola's features," said Ma. "But it's difficult and we have not seen anyone offer the same end-to-end experience as That we have."
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