Sustainability

ARTICLE by Natalie Brown

Celebrating 14 years of Natural Baby Shower

Jul 30, 2021 | Reading time: 7 minutes

This year marks 14 wonderful years since Natural Baby Shower started and what an amazing journey it has been!

Starting from a simple idea and shaped by 1 mum’s passion for parenting and the planet, Natural Baby Shower has grown into a leading online and high street retailer - loved and trusted by families around the world. It has been a very special adventure and we want to stop and reflect on the story of Natural Baby Shower, celebrating the milestones and special memories from throughout the years.

Started from the kitchen table

During their time living in New Zealand, co-founders Vics and Clifton welcomed their oldest son, Dylan into the world in 2003. They loved the laid back, environment-focused approach to parenting in the southern hemisphere but struggled to find similar products with the same focuses when returning to the UK.

Very few retailers shared the dedication to source eco baby products so through her own frustrations, Vics decided to fill that gap herself with the vision to set up a business that caters for parents wanting natural, sustainable products.

It was then in 2007, from the kitchen table that Natural Baby Shower was born, infused with a passion for quality baby products which didn’t cost the earth. From picking brands, to packing boxes, Vics and Clifton were at the heart of operations as they began taking their first – baby - steps running the business. Clifton used his programming experience to launch the website with Vics alongside advantaging her knowledge of quality baby brands to build into the NBS family.

14 years strong, the company is what it is today. Filled with the same ethos and passion as the very first day it launched with its success a result of the amazing people throughout its journey.

NBS store in Bagshot

So much has happened in 14 years, yet one milestone was highly celebrated – our NBS Bagshot store. A step on from our boutique store in Chertsey, the Bagshot store opened in 2015. It provided us a larger space and the opportunity to meet our customers face to face, get hands on with products and connect with the community. In such a short space of time, the store tripled in size, stocking baby essentials, nursery furniture, pushchairs and more. Featuring stunning nursery showrooms for demos and toddler area for entertainment, the store provided the team with a space to display the wonderful selection of hand-picked brands and products for families to browse and interact with.

Our HQ

For years the store was our headquarters but soon the team began to grow and as more team members joined the business, it was clear a new, bigger space was needed. In 2018 we found the perfect place, offering both a larger warehouse and office space where all the NBS team could come together. The Bracknell office was our new home and we loved it!

Our awards

In the 14 years since launch, the team have worked tirelessly to ensure we continue to offer the best baby and parenting products to families whilst helping to protect the planet. That’s why it is always amazing to be recognised for our efforts, especially through nominations or successes in awards.

Over the years we have been lucky enough to have won several special awards. We are so proud to have been acknowledged for our retailer excellence and trusted service, but also recognised for our positive social and environmental impact. Whilst every award means so much to us, some of our most recent highlights include winning “Best Online Retailer” at the Baby Awards in 2019, 2 golds and 1 silver at the Online Nursery Awards, winner of the “Positive Social Impact” award at the Surrey Heath Business Awards and bronze at the Weaning Week Awards for "Best Online Retailer" in 2020.

New website and branding

As our timeline nears, 2020 held many exciting and challenging milestones. One high - in February, the new website and branding was launched.

We’ve always cared about the customer experience so decided that a refresh would be perfect in providing a better shopping experience across the website. There were many improvements; new mobile shopping features, functionality, and filtering, plus more product information so that customers could make more informed purchasing decisions. We invested our efforts into building guides, product spotlights, and brand stories to help parents make confident choices and better yet, our efforts didn’t go unnoticed! The whole team found the new redesign amazing, and the results of months of hard work were so clearly showing.

Charity & Giving back

This birthday, it feels even more fitting to take some time to look back and appreciate the support given to those in need. Working alongside our charity partners we have been able to help many who have faced unprecedented challenges from both the coronavirus pandemic and the day-to-day struggles so many families face. Our 3 charity partners we have supported since last year are:

Women’s Aid, Stripey Stork & Shooting stars children hospice.

Giving back has never been so important, so helping shed some light on all the amazing work that these charities do is incredibly important. Through several special events such as Giving Tuesday or donations from % of sales, we have kept our promise to offer continued support. We are so proud to announce that with our customers support, we have donated thousands to charity this year alone. In April this year we donated masses of Merino kids clothing to Baby Basics UK who have supported new mothers and families struggling to meet the financial and practical needs of looking after a new baby.

Discover more about our charity work, our amazing charity partners and how you can get involved too.

Employees

It seems not only is our age increasing but also, our workforce. The NBS team now has over 70 employees, all playing their part to ensure the highest quality service to all our online customers. NBS has welcomed many faces over the years such as our lovely Rachel who was only the second employee to join the team back in 2007 and has been with us ever since. Seeing the team grow from just 2 to many is a fantastic representation of all the hard work put into the business these past 14 years and is especially a credit to Vics and Clifton who, without such perseverance, passion and dedication would not have achieved this feat.

To look forward to…

We’re moving!

Our 14th year is set to be our best yet with the very exciting news that we are relocating from our current HQ to a gorgeous new space. In just 3 years, our Bracknell base has seen some incredible moments, so it will be a bittersweet feeling saying goodbye however, not a complete farewell as we move just 500 yards down the road to a brand new, top of the range warehouse and office space (a whopping 43000 ft²). Currently the work is underway to shape the space into the perfect hub for Natural Baby Shower, featuring a new virtual shopping area, car seat fitting drive-through service, NBS designed room sets for filming and much more. We are excited to stock even more amazing products from the brands we love made possible with a bigger, better warehouse – we can’t wait!

Here to help

Helping parents welcome their new arrival is the most rewarding part for the NBS team, and we do our upmost to offer as much support as possible. Therefore, in our new office space we have invested time and energy into building more interactive, helpful services to make those first steps of parenthood that little bit easier. Our team of nursery experts strive to deliver the best service to our customers both instore and online with the new virtual shop feature, allowing customers to stay connected from the comfort of their own home.

We want to help use our online platform to offer customers confidence, knowledge and information to help with purchasing decisions and not only be where people buy their products, but also where parents go for expert helpful advice. Through our blog, product information on the website, parent review program and our interactive and informative buying guides, we want to help parents navigate the sometimes confusing world of baby essentials.

Our brands

As we see in our 14th year, it seems only right to shout about some of our new brands that have joined the NBS family. Finding the right brands who share the same mission has been a pinnacle focus for the team right from the very beginning, which is why we are proud to house such an array of fantastic brands and collections. This year we’ve welcomed...

Our brands mean so much and some of which have been with us from the very beginning such as Tots Bots, Cuddledry, Aden + Anais and Merino Kids. We are so looking forward to not only what this year has in store for us, but for our brands, past and present as we continue our journey at Natural Baby Shower.

Living in the moment

Today Natural Baby Shower is continuing to grow, hunting for new innovative brands and developing services for the optimum shopping experience. Despite the whirlwind of a journey seen these last 14 years, the spirit of the business has never faded; still striving to deliver the very best products to families worldwide and just as green as the day it started.