U.S. Market for Babycare Supplies Forecast to Increase More than $1 Billion by 2015

June 30, 2010 - PRLog -- June 29, 2010/ MarketResearch.com has announced the addition of Packaged Facts’ new report “Babycare Supplies in the U.S.: Diapers, Bottles, Wipes and Feeding Accessories, 5th Edition” to their collection of reports.  For more information, visit:

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Babycare supplies marketers must come up with new products and strategies on a regular basis  to raise brands above the commodity herd. The fact that the pool of babies tends to hover near 4.0 million, year in, year out, further pressures competition. Yet , according to Packaged Facts, this market is worth the scramble for share. Valued at $7.0 billion at retail, the market’s six categories (disposable diapers, wipes, bodycare preparations, feeding accessories, play & discovery toys, and pacifiers/teethers) hold rich potential for players with innovative wares and competitive savvy.
“Babycare Supplies in the U.S.: Diapers, Bottles, Wipes and Feeding Accessories, 5th Edition” to  breaks sales figures into six product categories. In descending order of retail dollar size, they are: disposable diapers/training pants, baby wipes/moist towelettes, baby bodycare products, nursing/feeding accessories, play & discovery (infant) toys, and pacifiers/teethers (a.k.a., soothing accessories). The best-performing categories during 2005-2009 were baby wipes/moist towelettes, baby bodycare products, and nursing/feeding accessories. Each achieved retail dollar growth totaling around 20% during the four-year period. The disposable diapers category was sluggish, advancing only 4% over that same four years. Meanwhile the volatile play and discovery toys category, which experienced double-digit ups and downs, had a net increase of just 1%. Pacifiers/teethers, the smallest category, lost 3% of its retail dollars over the span.

Unsurprisingly, many consumers turned to the value-tier of babycare supplies brands—as well as to private labels—during the recent recession. Packaged Facts anticipates that some consumers will stick with these lower-cost alternatives even as the economy improves. Nevertheless, as Packaged Facts predicted in the previous edition, the sales of luxury goods hit hard by the recession appear to be regaining ground as of June 2010. Improved disposable income will especially drive sales in the wipes/moist towelettes, baby bodycare, feeding accessories, and play & discovery toys categories as consumers once again satisfy their desires for premium and even prestige-priced babycare supplies. Purchases of natural, organic, and green products are also expected to continue propelling the market substantially.

Beyond traditional retail stores, the expansion of the online channel has immense implications for the babycare supplies market, as evidence by the performance of companies such as Quidsi, Inc./Diapers.com, which Packaged Facts estimates will have at least $100 million in sales during 2010. Meanwhile, the relative maturity of the babycare supplies market creates such an intense competitive climate for marketers that those that can afford to target foreign territories are setting up or expanding operations outside the U.S. For marketers with enough ingenuity and willingness to adapt their products to smaller, less expensive pack sizes, developing countries such as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) are fertile ground, according to Packaged Facts.
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