The folks at Active Baby co. have set themselves the goal of operating 100 stores. That’s right, 100 with two zeroes.
As a family run business, Active Baby co.’s formative years saw the team manoeuvre through the Covid-19 pandemic. As many retailers felt the pinch of lockdowns, Active Baby co. ramped up their online presence, opening three stores in quick succession.
With plans to open a fourth store in late 2023, the vision of 100 stores provided a north star for the business to follow.
Navigating the foundational years through a global pandemic
Active Baby co. was started by Jessy Ciappara and his wife, who discovered there was a gap in their local Macarthur market for baby products. Working alongside his sister Emily Ciappara as the Accounts Manager, the family team got to work starting their new business.
As locals to the region, the team knew it was a booming growth area for young families and wasted no time opening their first store.
“We started our first store in Narellan in 2020, which is very local to us,” says Emily. “We know the area very well. At the time we were a little unsure about exactly what we were wanting to do. We just knew we wanted to jump into the industry.”
After quickly getting their foot in the door, Active Baby co. were approached by the Macarthur Square shopping centre in Campbelltown to open a second location in 2021. That’s right, in the middle of the 2021 lockdowns, Active Baby co. opened their second location without flinching.
As Emily reflects on that time, she reveals that the pandemic was never something they had accounted for, but taking the opportunity afforded to them was in the spirit of their vision for the future.
”My brother’s very business minded and he’s got the goal of 100 stores in the next three years, which is a lot. But at the time Macarthur Square actually reached out to us and said they really wanted one of our stores there. It probably happened a little bit sooner – and a pandemic there wasn’t something we thought would’ve happened – but they reached out to us and it just worked out.”
Adapting, pivoting and evolving the business
As they opened their second store as an essential business in the middle of the pandemic, Active Baby co. chose to focus their Campbelltown location as a pram and car seat specialist. However, the team realised that approach was not working for them.
“Even while we were open, it was barely worth being open because at the time the only people coming into shopping centres were going to Woolworths or Coles to get their essentials and going home. So it was very rough.”
With the pandemic affecting customer behaviour, the team needed to shift gears to continue building to their vision of 100 stores. Not one to baulk in the face of a challenge, Emily says that the team continued to pursue online shopping to fill the gap left by in-store visitors.
“We really pushed our website and put a lot of time and effort into contactless delivery and contactless click and collect. We just rode it as best we could.”
As part of their tactical pivot, Active Baby co. went back to selling baby clothes and soft toys in their Campbelltown store, as well as adjusted their brand to continue their new direction of growth.
“We did a big change of our aesthetic in-store and online. Then we opened our third store in Shellharbour in November 2022. Now we’re on our way to opening our fourth store in Miranda, hopefully by August 2023.”
Unlocking the future with Lightspeed
From those first steps, Active Baby co. has gone from strength to strength. With a fourth store on the horizon the team are focused on honing their operations and delighting their customers as they work towards their ambitious vision.
Using Lightspeed’s unified POS and Payments platform, Emily has the tools to not only ensure that sales reporting is accurate, but staff in the stores were able to become more efficient and confident when taking payments.
“We’re trying to make everything as easy and inviting for the customer as possible so that they’ve got a million reasons to come in and Lightspeed has been very helpful with that. We’re starting to look into building a good database of our customers now and we’re starting to look into loyalty programs and memberships.”
It’s safe to say that Active Baby co.s formative years were filled with adversity. But rather than buckle under the pressure, the team persevered. Amidst uncertain times they showed true grit, took the opportunities afforded to them and committed to the vision they held. Now they’re poised for what will surely be an exciting future of growth.
Learn how Active Baby co. uses Lightspeed’s unified POS and Payments platform to grow their business.
News you care about. Tips you can use.
Everything your business needs to grow, delivered straight to your inbox.
