FirstCry.com: Catch them young

Traditionally the 'do's and don'ts' of baby care has always rested in the trusted hands of the grandmother, but with nuclear families, baby care has become major concern for mothers. Moreover, with the changing socio-economic status, lifestyle patterns and growing awareness and education levels, the buying behaviour of Indian parents has also witnessed a major shift. Taking a cue from this, online baby care retailer, FirstCry.com launched an on-ground campaign, 'Celebrating the happiest cry ever' under which the platform is delivering a customised box to mothers of newborns at various hospitals across the country.

Speaking about the initiative, Supam Maheshwari, CEO & founder at FirstCry.com, says that the core insight behind the campaign is that every mother makes the most informed decisions when it comes to her baby. We are providing them with the samples of best babycare products available in the market just at the right time. "Parents too come to know about new products and new brands. We also know that once a mother trusts a product she is unlikely to switch. This works well for brands and makes it important for them to reach their quality product as early in the stage of motherhood as possible," he explains.

FirstCry has also an agreement with Max Life Insurance to provide the right insurance guidance to parents, well in time. It has tied up with over 6,000 hospitals across 30 cities working closely with the top chains like Apollo, Aditya Birla group and Columbia Asia, among others. The campaign is being executed in all eight metros and most of the Tier I cities.

"We plan to extend our reach to all cities with a minimum population of 10 lakh or with a good economic index. By the end of this financial year, we should be in about 50 cities," adds Maheshwari. At present, the company is distributing more than 60,000 FirstCry Hospital Boxes a month and plans to take this up to 75,000 in the next three months and then scale it up to one lakh by the end of this financial year. Maheshwari asserts that the platform offers the widest range of price points in each category to provide for parents from all socio-economic profiles.

In terms of category, the platform is witnessing a spurt in the demand for clothes and shoes in the baby and kids fashion space. FirstCry boasts of a multi-tier strategy. Apart from the online store, it also has 70 offline stores across Tier I, II and III cities. The biggest marketing challenge for FirstCry is to reach parents in the most targeted and cost-efficient manner, which it claims to have achieved through the FirstCry Box program.

"Today, we have the ability to reach more than one million unique parents a year. We have healthy conversions, which are five times that of an average e-commerce site conversion," says Maheshwari. FirstCry is also promoting the offline stores through the boxes distributed in the catchment areas. The integration of online and offline has also meant that a parent can use our value offers in the box at the online or offline stores as per their preference.

FirstCry was founded by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha in 2010. It claims to have an inventory of more than 70,000 items from over 600 International and Indian brands. With more than 350 international and national vendors on board, they offer products ranging from maternity wear to accessories for nursery, diapers, clothes for kids till the age of nine, toys, school gear, prams, strollers and even car seats. FirstCry competes with Babyoye, BabyBox.in. Mahindra Retail, which operates the mother and child-care product-focused retail chain, Mom & Me. It had also launched an online shop, momandmeshop.in, in December 2011.