sp; Teperson said the goal was to create a place parents want to go for inspiration, advice and support, not simply a place with the largest selection of baby goods in Australia.  “I’ve travelled the world to try and seek out the very best baby retail to understand what the global benchmark looked like, and whilst there are certainly some really strong and fantastic examples that I found, I truly believe that what we have created here is world-class,” he told Inside Retail. A new design backed by customer data The foundation of Baby Bunting’s new store concept was laid in October 2023, when Teperson was appointed CEO. Shortly after joining the business, he commissioned a series of focus groups with past, current and future customers to understand what they liked about Baby Bunting, what they disliked and the gap in between.  “What they told us quite clearly was that being a one-stop shop is wonderful and convenient. The range and choice are amazing. But with choice comes a sense of feeling overwhelmed for some parents – you literally don’t know where to start,” he said.  The other key takeaway was customers’ lack of connection with the shopping environment: “It wasn’t a place that you wanted to go back to necessarily, it was a place that you needed to go back to,” he said.  Armed with these insights, in January 2024, Teperson took a group of Baby Bunting leaders on a study tour of the best examples of physical retail in the US. Back in Australia, they started working with Sydney-based consultancy The General Store on the ‘store of the future’ concept, which took about 12 months to bring to life.  At the heart of the concept is a deep understanding of parents’ needs. For instance, sleep is one of the biggest challenges new parents face, so Baby Bunting created the ‘Sweet Dreams’ space, where customers can find everything they need for a successful bedtime routine, from swaddles and dummies to white noise machines and night lights.  The area also features Ikea-like vignettes, including cots, rocking chairs, mobiles and bookshelves, to help parents picture their baby’s nursery and see all the products they might need for a good night’s sleep.  In the ‘Little Tummies’ section, bottle warmers and food processors are displayed out of their boxes on a tiled counter that is meant to resemble a kitchen benchtop, with high chairs stationed alongside. Support cards explain what each product does, “so you’re not just choosing widgets,” Teperson explained. Nearby, a round table provides a place for weary shoppers to take a break, recharge their phones and give their kids a snack.  The ‘On the Go’ area is home to prams, car seats, carriers and travel cots. Products are displayed according to their function rather than brand – double strollers, single strollers, travel strollers – making it easy for shoppers to compare similar items. There is also ample space to try out products and comfortable seating.  “Particularly when you’re making really important decisions about the safety of your children and car seats or a big investment purchase like a pram, you don’t want to feel rushed,” Teperson said. “You want to feel like you’ve had the opportunity to look at all the options.” New store formats and category expansion Part of the process of designing the ‘store of the future’ was identifying a new vision for Baby Bunting – to create the best start for the brightest future. “That’s talking about the role that parents play in raising children in this world and universe. It’s a great, awesome responsibility,” Teperson explained.  Within that, the retailer’s mission is “to support and inspire confident parenting for newborns to toddlers,” Teperson said. This is notable in that it speaks to one of the key growth areas he has identified for the business.  Baby Bunting has long been known for its products for newborns, but recently, it has expanded its offering for toddlers, investing in categories like feeding, toys and activity. By building trust with customers at the beginning of their parenting journey, Teperson sees an opportunity to increase their lifetime value within the business.  Another way he is looking to grow the business is through store expansion. In the next few months, Baby Bunting will launch a new, small-format store concept in shopping centres, either within or immediately next to fresh food precincts, to make it easier for busy parents to pick up essentials when they are already out running errands.  The stores will be 400-600sqm, located within 8-9 kilometres of a large-format Baby Bunting and carry what Teperson calls “post-birth milestones”.  “The two core pillars of that strategy are feeding and sleep. Then, around that, babywear, toys and what we call lotions and potions. When we think about our core category, which is travel and car seats and prams, it’s what you need post-birth,”  he explained. “The customer at that stage would have bought the big pram, but they may realise they need something smaller and more lightweight that they can put in the boot with groceries.” Teperson believes there is room to open 20-40 small-format stores and 39 large-format stores in Australia. Baby Bunting currently has 71 stores in Australia and five in New Zealand, and Teperson sees an opportunity to open another six to 10 large-format Baby Bunting stores in that market.  “We see a very healthy, prosperous growth profile opening new stores, but we also know and have measured the impact of opening stores on our online business in catchments where we don’t have stores, and there is a very strong positive correlation between online and omnichannel growth as a result of investing in where customers want to shop your brand,” he shared.   Underpinning all of this is a focus on making shopping for baby goods easier and more convenient for customers. Last November, Baby Bunting launched an on-demand delivery service; these orders now account for 8-9 per cent of total online sales.  “It’s helping customers access the products they need in the moments they need them in the most convenient way for them. If they want to come to a store, beautiful, if they want to click and collect, or do an on-demand delivery, they can,” he said. The next generation of parents Over the coming months, Baby Bunting will be studying the customer response to the ‘store of the future’ to understand which elements are working and how it can roll them out to the rest of its network.  As Teperson noted, over half of its stores across Australia and New Zealand were designed more than 17 years ago, before smartphones or social media existed.  “That was core Gen X,” he said. “The social norms, the things they cared about, how they shopped and where they got their information are vastly different from where we are today.” In three years, Baby Bunting’s target customer will be Gen Z. “And they have a completely different attitude and life experience around how they purchase categories,” he said. “This whole notion that the world is moving digitally and online and that retail is dead is a misnomer.”  In fact, he believes the new store concept can deliver a minimum 10 per cent sales boost. “We think it could be higher than that, but 10 per cent is the business case, and that gives us a three-year payback on the capital that we invest in these stores,” Teperson said.