Natural Baby Shower in Small Business Saturday

Surrey-based online retailer of eco, ethical and premium baby products has been named among the 100 small businesses in the UK to be celebrated by Small Business Saturday, the campaign that culminates in the UK’s dedicated day for small businesses on December 3rd.

Natural Baby Shower has been trading for nine years and, last June, opened a new flagship store in the heart of Surrey. It will now be among the select number of businesses to be featured by the campaign, one per day for the 100 days leading up to Small Business Saturday itself.  

Founder Victoria Hampson conceived the idea for the business when she was expecting her first child while living in New Zealand. She was inspired by the natural approach to parenting she experienced there as well as the readily available natural, organic and ethical products. After returning to the UK when her son, Dylan, was six weeks old, she found there was a gap in the market and launched Natural Baby Shower in 2007 from her kitchen table. The business is now growing from strength to strength and is home to essentials such as nappies, slings, changing bags and a vast selection of organic clothing all from top name brands. Now that they have opened their flagship store they have also been able to additionally offer their customers a wide range of buggies and car seats.

“Small businesses make a real difference to peoples lives,” says Victoria. “We believe in helping parents have the best pregnancy and start to parenthood, along with providing the best products for newborn babies. Often the best products have come from other parents who have either struggled or been inspired and seen improvements or gaps in product design and use. They create small businesses like ours and embark on a journey that we are proud to support.”

Small Business Saturday is already the UK's most successful small business campaign. This is the fourth year of the campaign, which last year saw £623m spent with small businesses across the UK on Small Business Saturday, an increase of £119m or 24 per cent on the previous year. The campaign trended at number one in the UK on Twitter on the day with more than 100,000 campaign-related tweets being sent. Over 75% of local councils supported the campaign, giving considerable national reach into local communities.

The campaign is a great nationwide promotional and marketing tool for small businesses. It is totally free to participate and any small businesses can get involved - from one-man-bands, through to a high growth office, and from tradesmen to social media gurus. In addition to the big day, the campaign also delivers help and advice alongside opportunities to connect with other small businesses. In short, Small Business Saturday exists to support, inspire and promote small businesses. 

“The British public has a great affection for small businesses and we continue to see that grow year on year.  Small Business Saturday is an exceptional example of collaboration and co-operation with small businesses teaming up in communities around the UK,” explains Campaign Director Michelle Ovens.

“Although the campaign focuses on one day, the goal is to have a lasting impact on small businesses by changing mind-sets, so that people make it their mission to support small businesses all year round. Most people in this country own a small business, work for a small business or know somebody who does, so supporting a small business on Small Business Saturday is absolutely personal.”