FirstCry goes gaga with offers for new mothers

As a part of its micro-marketing strategy, online retailer of babycare FirstCry has presented one million gift boxes to new mothers in hospitals across the country. It also gave coupon codes to mothers for further shopping on its online site, app or the 120 physical outlets across the country.

The Pune-based company plans to continue the campaign perpetually and targets to reach 1,25,000 new mothers per month. "The free-of-cost gift box presented to new mothers contained essentials required in the first few days of pregnancy and we called the box as 'celebrating the first cry'," said Supam Maheshwari, CEO of FirstCry.

The company, which first conducted a pilot with around 200 hospitals in Pune, has so far partnered with more than 7,500 hospitals across the country.

It has spent around Rs 20 crore on this initiative along with its brand partners. "With marketing costs increasing exponentially today, this was an innovative means for us to connect with new customers at a reduced marketing cost and build a potent relationship with new mothers who can become our regular customers," said Maheshwari.

He said the company has seen a conversion rate of 8%-10% to actual customers through this campaign. "Traditional campaigns typically see a 1% to 2%, whereas we achieved conversions four times that," Maheshwari said.

First-Cry, owned by Brainbees Solutions, had raised $36 million, or about Rs 220 crore, from New Enterprise Associates, Valiant Capital and existing investors in its fourth round of funding earlier this year. It plans to increase its physical store count to 200 by March 2016.

The Indian babycare (age 0-9) market is estimated at around $10 billion, or about Rs 62,000 crore. Every year about 25 million babies are born in the country.

The market is fragmented today with as many as 4,000 specialised baby shops across the country. "There is a huge opportunity for organised retail chains," Maheshwari said. In the online space, First-Cry competes with players such as BabyOye.

(Image credits: Indiatimes)