Marco Salerno, client insight manager for leading market research company GfK, takes a look at the current state of the stroller market.
“Value growth in the strollers market has stalled over the last 12 months, putting it in line with the in-store retail pressures and falling average prices that we are seeing across much of the retail sector at the moment.
The total babycare sector continues to struggle against a background of falling consumer confidence and high street footfall. It is down by 4% in volume and 6% in value, based on the twelve months to July 2019.
The previously healthy stroller market has been a key contributor to this decline following on from 3% growth in the year to July 2018. Overall value sales have now fallen by -11% (to £237m), with volume sales only slightly more positive at -5%.
Matching wider market trends,there was a large discrepancy between online and in-store performance here. Online value sales as a whole across the strollers category continued their long term success, rising 13% against a sharp decline of -23% in-store, showing again the impact of a changing retailer landscape and consumer shopping habits.
The difference between the volume and value decline rates also highlights the impact of price trends and marks a clear change from previous years. Whereas from 2015-2018 value growth widely outperformed volume, over the last year we have seen the lower-end price ranges faring better with the total market average selling price (ASP) dropping over 6% from £238 to £222.
Clearly strollers remain a category that can demand a premium price and the popularity of high-end brands remains very strong. Yet in the face of the significant and seemingly unabating economic uncertainty it appears that UK consumers are not now always as prepared to spend big as they have been in recent years. ”
