It's a fact! The maternity industry in Australia has shrunk to the point where it should be listed on an endangered species register!
I should know. I have owned my own store,
Maternity Revolution, in Brendale on Brisbane's northside for 11 years now. I have been in the maternity industry for 15 years.
Here in Brisbane we probably lead the country with a whopping 5 stores (2 inner north, 2 outer north and 1 in the west). Elsewhere in Australia you would be lucky to count more than 1 store in each capital city.
David Jones don't do maternity, nor do Myers. From what I am told by my customers, Big W's range is now so small they may as well not do anything while Kmart and Target specialise in black cotton lycra basics only. Pumpkin Patch have dropped their maternity range. Room 4 Two and Mothercare, two very big retail chains situated in most the Westfields, both closed their doors some years ago.
As you can imagine, if the big players can't make a go of it, the little guys have even less chance and hence we have seen a lot of small boutiques close their doors. I can count at least 20 stores that have closed over the past 10 years.
The big question is :Why?"
Aren't people still getting pregnant?
I am so sick of people walking into the store in late pregnancy, perhaps coming in for bras or breastfeeding clothes and saying: "Wow! Great store. Wish I'd known about this earlier." My standard response is to ask why they didn't know about it till now. The standard answer is: "I DIDN'T LOOK!"
Holy moly! How does a small business overcome that hurdle. It's hard enough these days to get people's attention with the virtual death of print advertising and email being about as effective as whispering in a night club. Google hasn't helped. It has meant that you have to sit back and wait till customers are looking for you and in the meantime you pay $1000's of dollars a month to try and be found on Google when and if they decide to look. So if they are not even looking....then what?
I suppose what I am trying to say, is don't complain about the lack of something if you don't plan to give it your full support. This is similar to what's happening in the fresh food industry at the moment. Cries can be heard from every corner for better labelling laws and more Australian produce but in reality, few people are prepared to pay for it. Soon Australian frozen berries will hit the supermarket shelves and I will be interested to see what support they get. Many people will undoubtedly want to buy them but whether they are prepared to put their money where their mouth is remains to be seen.
So it is also with maternity wear. I hear requests for plus size maternity wear, maternity bras for larger cups sizes, maternity sports bras, strapless maternity bras, more maternity evening wear, maternity wear for tall people, maternity wear for short people, and so on and so on. I could go and spend $5000 on some plus size maternity shorts, 3/4 pants, jeans, cargos, and a few tops and to make it worthwhile all I would need to do is sell 1-2 pieces of it a day. That way, by the end of 60 days, when the bill comes dues, it is all sold and I can pay the bill and order more. That just doesn't happen though. If people want plus size maternity then I need at least 1 customer a day. I don't know what the birth rate is for plus size women in Australia but given that a business can only really expect to grab about 2% of the market there would need to be nearly 20,000 plus size women giving birth each year. With just over 300,000 births nationally each year, that's about 7% of total births. In truth, that is perhaps a possibility but it doesn't happen so obviously the percentage of plus size women wanting maternity wear is less than 2%. Or perhaps they do want it but don't want to buy online and I think this is more accurate.
With the expense of running a bricks and mortar store, many have ventured down the path of an online maternity store. Overheads are reduced to almost nil with no rent, no insurance, no wages, no electricity for running shop lighting and air conditioning, no merchandising displays, no signage, and no cleaning. An instant saving of about $150,000 a year but the catch is that not everyone wants to buy online and when you expose yourself to the online market you are in direct competition with some of the very big players of the maternity industry who have very large advertising budgets, very sophisticated websites and quite enticing returns and free postage policies. When the average internet sale costs about $15 to post, and the average gross profit on that sale is about $40, you can't afford to be offering free post and free returns. So unless you plan to plough that $150,000 saving into internet marketing and hope it brings returns, you perhaps shouldn't go down that path.
The real answer is a little like the answer to the age old question: " What came first? The chicken or the egg?" Did people stop buying maternity and therefore stores closed and people lost their awareness of there ever existing such a thing as a maternity store or did shops start closing due to the GFC and poor business practices and economic cycles which left shoppers with no other choice than to make do with non maternity clothing and as a result the awareness of specialty maternity stores disappeared. If it was simply that people stopped buying, then why was this and is that reason still valid or would people start buying again if more stores opened and the awareness was lifted?
I personally feel that a very successful maternity store needs the financial backing of a big player. It will need work and money to get it up and running successfully and the money is what's missing with most small businesses. Imagine though, a mini store within a department store. This store would be manned by experienced and dedicated staff who could also offer bra fittings and help with support garments. On the same floor would be the baby goods section and baby clothing. Myers are looking to revamp their image. Maybe this is something they could take on board.
Anyway, after a very long ramble, I suppose what I am trying to say is if you want maternity stores to be around in coming years and you want variety and good prices and personalised service then support the ones that are still here now.
Lisa Hovar
Maternity Revolution
www.maternityrevolution.com.au
1/124 South Pine Road, Brendale, QLD, 4500
