With British households spending 38% of their combined net incomes on their children, the mother and baby market is a lucrative sphere — especially when it comes to e-commerce. 49% of parents say they couldn’t live without online shopping, with research finding that parents spend 61% more than non-parents online.
Parents have harnessed the power of digital, but are mother and baby brands following suit? New analysis from digital marketing agency Mediaworks has examined the digital profiles of key parenting brands across baby care, clothing, food, toys and furniture markets to establish their performance over a six-month period.
But which brands come out on top? Here, we break down the results and present to you the key findings from each category:
Baby care
The baby care category is highly competitive, featuring big-players like Boots, Philips, Pampers and Johnson & Johnson. Of the 16 brands analysed, eight brands had increased their SEO visibility over the six month period, while a further two brands maintained their position, clearly illustrating the competitiveness of this market. Despite this, nine brands had a domain authority score and a number of linking root domains below the category averages, showing the potential for digital improvement.
Leader: Boots, although their strong digital profile is a result of the pharmaceutical chain’s large product offering, which delivers a greater ranking potential.
Clothing
SEO visibility in the baby clothing category is high, with six of the 13 brands analysed scoring above the 165,211 visibility average. The category is dominated by supermarket retailers Sainsburys and ASDA George, who grew their visibility by 57% and 21% respectively.
Leader: Tesco. The brand has the strongest SEO visibility and domain authority scores, but could improve their link profile.
Food
The baby food market is largely dominated by bigger brands like Aptamil, Cow & Gate, Hipp and Heinz Baby, who all have an SEO visibility score above the category average. Despite this dominance, smaller brand Little Dish actually witnessed the most significant growth in visibility over the six-month period (up 288%).
Leader: Aptamil. Although dominating in terms of visibility, a below average trust flow score (20) could be hampering the brand’s performance.
Home & furniture
The greatest potential lies in the baby furniture and home market, as just two brands score above the category average in terms of SEO visibility. Despite this, six out of nine brands strengthened their profile over the six-month period, led by Snuz (+5,800%).
Leader: John Lewis. Like a large proportion of the brands in this category, John Lewis’ success can be attributed to the domain strength, which is fuelled by a wider product offering.
Toys
Competition is high within the toys category, led by Toys R Us. Of all the brands analysed, Penguin experienced the greatest increase in SEO visibility during the period, while some brands experienced dramatic drops — like Fisher Price (-95%), Hasbro (-32%) and Hamleys (-30%).
Leader: Toys R Us. A strong focus on organic search has cemented the brand’s dominance of the category.
Transport
Kiddicare dominates the transport category, being the only brand with a SEO visibility score higher than the category average. UPPAbaby experienced the greatest drop in rankings of -67%, which suggests a significant loss in rankings.
Leader: Kiddicare. The brand’s six-month growth, high SEO visibility and paid search split has made them the clear leader in this category.
If you’d like to view the league tables in full, you can download the Mother & Baby Digital Marketing 6 Months Review white paper on the Mediaworks site.