What’s Hot? What’s Not? What’s Next? Insights for Baby Care Brands by Skai

One business that is constantly growing and somewhat recession-proof is the baby care industry. 

But not every baby care product that makes it to market has any real value. 

For example, the baby mop. If you feel that your baby isn’t pulling its weight around the house, maybe give it a try. It’s a onesie with mops attached to the arms and legs so they can clean the floors as they crawl around. This is a half-gag/half-serious item inspired by a Japanese spoof ad in the 1990s. 

Other recent baby products you may or may not like:

• For parents who like to drink beer and feel that their baby is missing out on the fun, there’s the Lil’ Lager Bottle. It looks like a beer bottle but is actually for your baby’s favorite juice or formula. This is a silly novelty item, but still a bit odd nonetheless. Who’s buying this?
• While some babies smell lovely, the truth is, sometimes they don’t. On these occasions, baby perfume might be just what they need. Check out Burberry Baby Touch EDT Spray is “a fruity fragrance with hints of spearmint, vanilla, orange blossom, jasmine, mint, moss, and mandarin. It is recommended for evening wear.”
• Changing diapers can be a messy business. BabyBum Glove Saks lets you change your baby’s diapers and then fold them inside out for clean disposal. Not a bad idea!

Insights for Baby Care Brands: What’s Hot, Not, & Next

The global baby care products market generated $67 billion in 2020 and will increase to $89 billion by 2026. That makes it one of the most significant sectors in consumer goods. How can baby care companies keep up with the demand and grow successfully with so much competition?

Consumer and market intelligence platforms like Skai are increasingly used by baby care brands looking to keep a finger on the pulse of what is happening in the category in real-time and get ahead of the latest trends.

Skai collects more data than anyone else relevant to baby care (social reviews, product listings, ratings, reviews, patents, etc.) so that brands don’t miss a thing. Then, we apply natural language processing so that it’s easy to extract what is happening in the baby care category and why — and what will happen in the future. And we visualize the data in a way that makes it easy to understand for anyone from Insights, Marketing, Brand, Product Innovation, and more.

Our Baby Care category includes data from over:

• 24,000+ products
• 472,000+ consumer discussions
• 293,000+ product reviews
• 1,000+ key opinion leader posts
• 23,560+ patents

So what is the data showing us? Let’s take a look!

What’s Hot

• Anti-bacterial. It makes perfect sense that parents (and expecting parents) of pandemic babies would be overly concerned about keeping germs away. There has been a 36% increase in social media discussions mentioning Anti-bacterial baby products in the last year, along with a 106% growth in product reviews mentioning this benefit.
• Irritation Control is what baby care experts are talking about most these days. It is currently the top baby care benefit mentioned in Key Opinion Leader’s posts. Babies can’t complain about their irritation, so parents should stay on top of this issue.
• Reusable is a growing trend for this generation of eco-friendly parents. As a result, there has been a 190% growth in new Reusable products to market in the baby care sector.

What’s Not

• Scented baby care products seem to be declining with relatively flat growth (1%) in social media posts and a 16% decrease in product reviews mentioning Scented in baby care discussions.
• Ultra Absorbent products could be hot, but they’re not because brands haven’t been quick enough to market to cash in on this demand. With a 175% increase in product reviews and a 44% increase in social media discussions around Ultra Absorbent baby care products, these should be flying off the shelves. Brands should jump on the bandwagon as only 18 new Ultra Absorbent patents have been filed in the last five years. 
• Concentrated Formula was something that was a bit hot a few years ago in multiple industry categories, even beyond baby care products. Cost-sensitive and green consumers saw this trend to cut down on expensive and excessive packaging, but the trend is declining quickly. Just 6 new Concentrated Formula baby care products were released last year—that’s a 40% decline versus the previous year.

What’s Next

• Pull-ups are diapers for the toddler stage that are a hybrid between diapers and pants. 64 new Pull-up products made it to market last year, and 71 patents have been filed in the previous five years.
• Healthy Diet and Allergies & Sensitivities are the two most common baby food product claims mentioned on Amazon.com.
• Waterproof is a benefit that baby care brands are exploring. There has been a 249% growth in new Waterproof baby care products released last year and 225 new Waterproof baby care patents in the previous 5 years.

Top Baby Wipes & Diapers Brands (by number of products available online)

The baby care trend to watch: no side effects

As the information age continues to march on, today’s parents are more likely to research their baby care products online before they buy.

One baby care trend that popped up in our analysis was the term no side effects. With baby care social media pots mentioning this benefit up 30% year-over-year and product reviews up 62% during the same period, it seems that consumer demand is picking up.

While just 18 products that highlight this benefit are currently being sold online—and only one new product released in the last year—754 baby care patents have been filed during the previous five years that mention no side effects. 

There might just be a flood of these products claiming this that will be coming out in the next few years.

To find out what’s hot, what’s not, and what’s next in your industry, please reach out today to schedule a brief demo of Skai™’s market intelligence platform.

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