I often find myself thinking about and discussing opportunities for business model transformation, and so thought it might be interesting to document these in a series I am calling ‘Reimagined’.
For the first edition, I will look at Mothercare. Facing significant slowdown in customer traffic to its high street stores, alongside a recent growth in online sales, Mothercare is actively engaged in a store rationalisation programme. To compliment this, I have suggestions for a complete change in how Mothercare’s customers engage with the brand.
Aiming to be the ‘number one specialist for parents’, Mothercare has a unique opportunity to advise and provide all the good and services that parents will need from pre-birth to the child becoming a toddler. Parents will have a limited time with which they interact with Mothercare, and especially for new parents, will look to them for ‘expert’ advice. A move from transactional one-off purchases, to a monthly subscription or perhaps a 3/4 year agreement, would allow Mothercare to proactively advise and provide all of the required products that a parent will need for their child. This will likely take away significant stress in identifying and finding these products, and allow the parent to focus on themselves and their child. This can also be accompanied by digital services which provide the parents with relevant information they require at the different stages of the child’s journey, allowing Mothercare to provide this ‘expert’ level of advice to its customers.
In order to make this experience more personalised, this new offering could come as an extension of the My Mothercare reward club, building on top of the insight Mothercare has into its customers. Also, due to the time-bound usage of these products, there is the opportunity for Mothercare to create a community and marketplace around recycling and reuse of products, where this is appropriate. This is a market which already exists on generic marketplace sites, and so Mothercare can add value by facilitating the connection between its customers and creating this focused community, and benefit financially via platform administration charges.
Mothercare as a service? Providing all of the goods and services the parent needs during their limited-time interaction with the brand, whilst creating a second-hand marketplace and community of its customers to enable longer term brand interaction and value. Creating more predictable revenue from online sales, as well as enabling a shift of the remaining brick & mortar stores to become click and collect fulfilment centres, advisory clinics and community centres for subscription members.