In India, the name Firstcry.com is almost synonymous with ‘shopping for kids’ today. The one-stop shop for all thing’s kids, the brand became a massive success over the years.
FirstCry saw opportunity in the unorganized baby care market. With loads of businesses and brands available, this market leader steered the path to become what it ow claims to be Asia’s largest online store for baby and kids’ products.
Beginnings
FirstCry was found in 2010 by IIM graduates Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha.
The then CEO of BrainVisa Technologies, Supam faced issues when confronted with the task of buying things for his son when on business trips. The thought of having a platform that would ease this problem area, prompted this first-generational entrepreneur to come up with FirstCry.
Thus, teaming up with Amitava Saha who collaborated with Maheshwari on ExpressBees before, FirstCry was established with the intention to provide access to good, affordable and top baby and kids’ brands to parents.
Initially, following an inventory-based model, FirstCry shipped products PAN India and in within a few years’ time, the brand started brick-and-mortar shops and attracting retailers that offered them business and growth opportunities.
Offerings
The brand’s online and offline platforms offers a product range that spans over 90,000 goods from over 1200 foreign and Indian companies like Mattel, Ben10, Pigeon, Funskool, Hotwheels, Pampers, Disney, Barbie, Gerber, Fisher price etc.
They cater to categories like product categories like diapering, feeding and nursing, skin and health care, toys, apparel, footwear, fashion accessories, and much more.
The brand achieved success by working on factors like reasonable costs, a delightful shopping experience, fast delivery and dependable customer service.
Today, the brand commands a humongous online presence and also has over 400 outlets in the country.
Marketing initiatives
In order to make its presence felt and also attract high recall, FirstCry has adopted an innovative method. As a part of its marketing strategy, the brand distributes a
‘FirstCry’ box to over 70,000 parents each month across 6000 hospitals in the country. The box contains baby essentials like diapers, baby lotions and oils.
Another significant initiative by FirstCry was onboarding Amitabh Bachchan as its brand ambassador in 2015. With ad films around the theme ‘Bachchon ki shopping, bachchon ka khel nahi’, the brand achieved better visibility and the megastar till today reigns as its brand ambassador.
Mergers, acquisitions and competitors
The brand’s primary competitors are platforms like babyoye.com, momlovesbest.com and hopscotch.in. Along with these, ecommerce sites like Amazon and Myntra also serve as competitors. However, Firstcry.com with its aggressive marketing strategies and social media presence strives to stay ahead in the race.
In 2016 FirstCry acquired BabyOye, owned by the Mahindra Group for INR 362 crore. This merged entity now does business under the name FirstCry.com, a FirstCry Mahindra Venture.
FirstCry also acquired playschool company Oi Playschool in 2019.
