U.S. Baby Product Market Gets Rattled

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In a surprising turn of events, the U.S. baby products market is reportedly down $3 billion and online sales have dropped 5% from 2016.

TABS Analytics has released the 2017 Baby Products Study which studied five major infant and baby product categories—baby seats and safety products, baby feeding, diapers and accessories, baby formula and food, and baby care needs.

According to the study, “57% of high income households with incomes of $150,000 or more made at least one baby product purchase in the last year compared to just 24% of households with incomes between $75,000 to $99,000. Although the online share of baby products sales increased from 20% in 2016 to 22% in 2017, the actual online sales dropped, mirroring the overall drop in sales of the entire U.S. baby products market.”

Kurt Jetta, Ph.D., founder and CEO of TABS Analytics, stated, “What was most surprising about this year’s baby study was the dramatic division of baby products purchasing among the income groups. Drilling into the data, we found that the only income group that actually increased their purchasing was high income consumers while all the other income groups decreased their purchasing compared to 2016. We certainly expect to see gains in purchasing for luxury products by high income buyers but not for baby essentials such as diapers and baby food. My concern is that in baby products the income disparity in purchasing behavior is a microcosm of the major shifts we already see in retail, in politics and in our economy.”

For more information and key findings from the study please visit www.tabsanalytics.com

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