Chris

On the contrary, the baby products market is one in which people are prepared to spend an absolute fortune. A huge chunk of the market is occupied by highly technical or extremely personalised stuff that retails for a king’s ransom. What Mothercare has failed to appreciate is that people are motivated enough to research online to get exactly the kit they want, rather than choosing from the limited range in a Mothercare branch (some of which is indeed appalling tat). Their business model seems to have been to assume that as babies keep being born, people would keep shopping in Mothercare. That wasn’t the case even 16 or so years ago when the Mrs and I were in the market for baby kit and I doubt it’s the case now. Even back in the relatively early days of the web, we did our research online, knew what was out there, what we wanted, and how little of it was available in a Mothercare shop.