For baby and parenting brands, understanding UK parents’ shopping habits offers a strategic advantage. By aligning promotions and campaigns with consumer preferences, brands can both boost immediate sales and cultivate long-term brand loyalty. Here’s our top tips on ways brands can leveraging consumer habits, and the lasting impact this can create.

1. Use Discounts to Drive Brand Familiarity

Research shows that 83% of UK consumers compare prices to find the best discounts, and 65% plan to shop during sales to save money, such as Black Friday. For baby brands, offering targeted discounts on high-demand and often pricey essentials can encourage parents to try new products. Discounts can often serve as an entry point for first-time customers. Once they have a positive experience, they’re more likely to return, as 67% of consumers tend to repurchase from brands, they’re familiar with​.

2. Focus on Value-Driven Promotions

In 2023, 29% of UK consumers reported a heightened focus on affordability due to rising costs​. Parents are particularly conscious of quality versus cost, especially with everyday essentials for babies and toddlers. By creating value bundles or offering loyalty programs, brands can meet parents’ needs for both quality and affordability, turning cost-sensitive shoppers into loyal customers who appreciate the brand’s dedication to value.

Promotions and loyalty schemes also lead to repeat purchases, which are critical, as studies show that repeat customers spend up to 67% more than new ones​

3. Highlight Practical, Multi-Use Products

Parents frequently look for items that are not only affordable, but also functional and long-lasting. By positioning products as versatile or growth-supportive—like toys that adapt with a child’s development—brands increase the chance that parents will continue buying across product lines. Familiarity with a product’s reliability can encourage parents to explore additional products within the brand, fostering trust and preference.

4. Create an Integrated Shopping Experience

Despite the popularity of online shopping due to the convenience it offers consumers, 2023 data shows that 50% of UK shoppers prefer in-store purchases for certain items. This experience is often critical for parents making investments in high-cost baby essentials such as car seats, strollers and cribs, whereby the ability to see, feel, and test products in person provides reassurance about quality and safety.

Baby brands should provide both online convenience and engaging in-store experiences, such as eye-catching displays and hands-on product demos. For parents who prefer online shopping, interactive content like “try-before-you-buy” features, product demonstrations, or links to product showcases on influencers’ social media channels can be impactful.

Understanding and leveraging consumer shopping habits offers baby and parenting brands a powerful strategy to stand out in a competitive market. By aligning with key trends, brands can turn initial purchases into long-term customer loyalty. When parents try a product due to a discount or convenience, it often establishes a positive brand association, increasing the likelihood of future purchases – thus, brands can foster loyalty and become go-to choices for parents.

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