Business Opportunities Weblog

March 17, 2009 by Angela Shupe | 1 Comment

In a niche that we generally find many mompreneurs making there mark, Trevor Ginn is making his. What do they have in common? Parenthood.

Trevor is a father and the founder of Hello Baby, an UK-based business which sells everything you could need for your baby, from clothing and bedding to strollers. Anything a new parent might need is likely to be found within the site. If you’re not located in the UK, that is not a problem. Hello Baby will also ship internationally.

What was the inspiration behind Hello Baby?

My inspiration for starting Hello Baby was really two fold. At the time I was running an eCommerce consultancy (www.vendlab.com) helping businesses increase their online sales mainly through search engine marketing and online marketplaces. Most of my clients were not at all web savvy but were building successful online retail businesses. I felt with my experience that I could do a much better job!

Secondly, the birth of my daughter in summer of 2007 opened my eyes to the potential for the online nursery market in the UK. In my opinion many baby sites in the UK give a poor user experience, have very limited products descriptions and use poor quality photographs. We go to a lot of effort to give fully comprehensive product descriptions and use high quality images. We are also experimenting with video to give an extra dimension to our product listings.

Of all the products offered in your online shop, which ones are the biggest hit with your customers?

We sell across a wide range of baby products but our best seller are must have items such as booster seats, baby travel and feeding products.

Since your launch 1 year ago, have you been able to reach all of your goals up to this point?

A lot of our time over the past year has been spent on developing our infrastructure. Our eCommerce platform is now integrated with the major online marketplaces (eBay and Amazon) and with our website. We have also recently integrated with the UK postal service’s electronic dispatch system which saves us a great deal of time. Sales wise we are seeing month on month sales increasing by around 10% which is great.

What would you like to accomplish in year 2?

Currently we sell about two thirds of our products through eBay and Amazon and the remainder through the website. We want to grow the website sales so that the vast majority of sales are through the website. I am also very keen to develop the community side of the business. We have recently launched a network for parents (www.hellobabynetwork.com ) and we are in the process of developing iPhone and facebook apps.

How many countries would you say you’ve shipped to? Do you try to remain region specific or welcome overseas orders?

We ship our product worldwide, with about 15% of sales going overseas.

What separates your business from the competition?

Our aim has always been to take a simple idea (selling baby products online) and do it better than anyone else. Unlike many of our competitors, we are an online only company and we put 100% of our effort into creating a great online experience. Our background in online marketing is allowing us to take advantage of the fantastic opportunities for acquiring customer through platforms such as Google, eBay and Amazon.

Have you always shown an interest in being an entrepreneur? What lead you here?

Since a brief and unsuccessful stint at an investment bank at the beginning of my career, I have always worked for startups. I think it is an obvious progression to move from a startup to running your own business. I also think that fundamentally don’t like working for other people!

In Interviews | 1 Comment
Tags: Ecommerce, Kids