- Creating a section focused on informing customers about BabyTech products.
- The main line-up includes 'bedtime- and time-saving' items, which are in high demand among child-rearing households.
- Actively incorporating BabyTech products in a broader sense, with a view to expanding to other shops.
The Akachan Honpo LaLaport Fukuoka shop, which opened on 25 April 2022, has the country's first permanent baby tech corner. At that corner, visitors can not only experience various baby tech products, but can also actually purchase them. Tetsuya Nagata, President of PapaSmile, interviewed Yuya Yamagata (hereafter, titles omitted), Product Division Buyer at Akachanhonpo, about the concept of the shop's BabyTech Corner, customer response and future development.
Baby Bookshop, Inc.
Product Division Buyer
Yuya Yamagata
Papa Smile Inc.
Representative Director Tetsuya Nagata
Permanent section with the top priority of 'informing customers about BabyTech products'.
Nagata: Thank you very much for your time today. Can you give us a quick overview of the Akachan Honpo LaLaport Fukuoka shop?
Yamagata: The shop opened on 25 April 2022 on the third floor of Mitsui Shopping Park LaLaport Fukuoka, a commercial facility in Hakata Ward, Fukuoka City. The store is organised in a way that is easy to select and understand, with a one-stop shopping area for products necessary for maternity and maternity preparations, and a product line-up focused on childcare for babies up to around 12 months of age.
Nagata: You have a permanent BabyTech corner in this same shop.
Yamagata: Yes. We have set up a BabyTech exhibition area where consumers can directly see, touch and purchase products and services that use technology to solve child-rearing issues. Here, we will introduce a variety of items that utilise technology according to the theme and propose ways to make family life, including childcare, more convenient, enjoyable and richer.
Nagata: Thank you very much. Can you tell us about the concept of the BabyTech Corner?
Yamagata: First of all, this will be the first time that we actually sell Babytec products. So our first priority is to show customers how good our products are and what the benefits are of using them.
At the same time, simply displaying products on the shelves is the same sales method as in an electronics mass retailer. Therefore, we are also very conscious of informing customers why Akachanhonpo deals in these products, for example by displaying posters saying 'BabyTech will change the way you raise your child'.
Nagata: If you look at the photos of the sales floor, you can see posters telling about BabyTech's initiatives.
