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Bloomberg
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has just fired a broadside in the battle for your baby’s bottom.
The world’s biggest retailer is going after the new parents who typically shop at rival Target Corp. with dozens of new products for infants—including bedding and a softer, more absorbent diaper that took more than a year to design.
Wal-Mart said that it’s overhauling its 19-year-old Parent’s Choice brand by introducing 120 new products and improving 100 others. The revamp includes its first-ever line of blankets and crib sheets, as well sippy cups, wipes and the new diaper, which was created by specialists poached from companies in the industry.
The move aims to grab market share from Target, which has found success this year with Cloud Island, a line of about 500 bedding and decor items for infant nurseries. It could also pressure Kimberly-Clark Corp., which makes Huggies, and Pampers maker Procter & Gamble Co. The two diaper giants have lowered prices to counter Amazon.com Inc.’s entry into a market already hampered by a decline in US birth rates.
Citing government data that shows the cost of raising a child to age 18 has soared to more than $230,000, Wal-Mart’s vice president of baby products, Diana Marshall, said “our mission is to provide parents with quality items they need at prices they want.†The sippy cup, for instance, cost 96 cents, while the blankets range from $9.88 to $12.43.
Store Brands
The Parent’s Choice relaunch is part of a broader push by Wal-Mart to improve the quality of its store brands, which include labels like Great Value and Sam’s Choice. The business is led by Senior Vice President Jack Pestello, who opened a 12,000-square-foot innovation center last year at the company’s Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters. The facility includes test kitchens and a sensory lab where employees sample new items during their lunch breaks.
Wal-Mart’s new diaper was developed over the course of a year by scientists and engineers hired from national-brand companies, Marshall said. It will be sold in about 500 stores at first for $7.24 per 35-pack, or about 21 cents each. Its current store-brand diaper —which costs $4.62 for 50, or about 9 cents each—will remain on shelves.