Mothercare boosted by older mothers willing to pay full price

Mothercare jumped 3.8 per cent on a like for like basis in the UK

Sales at Mothercare jumped 3.8 per cent on a like for like basis in the UK

Mothercare has been benefitting from the recent news that more women over 35 years old are giving birth than women under 25 because older mothers tend to have more disposable income, the retailer’s boss has said.

Mark Newton-Jones said: “We are definitely seeing the benefits. These mothers have more disposable income and a little bit more discerning, wanting to buy the very best.”

It means premium products on offer are up from 10 per cent of stock to 18 per cent and customers are more willing to pay full price for goods.

Last week the Office for National Statistics revealed 144,181 women aged 35 and above gave birth, overtaking the 138,592 mothers under 25 who gave birth.

Companies like Cow & Gate, Heinz and Mothercare offer mothers freebies (Getty Images)

Since joining Mothercare last year, Newton-Jones has been pushing to sell more full price items after years of heavy discounting on products had left the UK business on the brink of going bust.

He said: “We’ve had a complete move away from the discounting. Previously only 59 per cent of products sold at full price, now it’s 70 per cent.”

Online sales have been particularly impressive, particularly through mobiles and tablets. Newton-Jones suggested this was due to mothers being unable to sit at a computer while nursing newborns and instead using their phones to place orders.

He added, that staff in stores had been given iPads to help customers place orders and do research, and online sales in stores now account for 45 per cent of all online business.

“Online is up 22 per cent in the half and that’s a story about mobile and that’s huge for us. 56 per cent of sales online are coming from mobiles and tablets.

“Customers are coming in, having a chat and doing the research with the advisor. That’s happening on the shop floor and leading to a big uptick in sales.

“We’ve also introduced live chat on the website. The average talk time is nine minutes, which leads to a series of questions and the transactions are up 50 per cent compared with those who don’t use live chat,” Newton-Jones said.

His comments come as sales at Mothercare jumped 3.8 per cent on a like for like basis in the UK, and losses for the six months to October 10 were slashed from £13.5 million to £6.1 million.

Fashion sales suffered due to the unseasonably warm autumn and wet summer, but this was made up by strong sales in home and travel divisions.

Analysts expect the UK to be profitable by 2017 but Newton-Jones hinted that this could be sooner.

Group sales including international were down 3.1 per cent to £613.3 million due to currency fluctuations but group pretax profits rose from £3.3 million to £7 million.

Mothercare has been particularly exposed to overseas problems including Russia and China where it has 100 stores in each country.

However, Newton-Jones said there were no plans to leave either country despite the devaluation of the Rouble in Russia and China’s economic woes of recent months.