We caught up with NeeNoo founder Amisha Mody to chat about the UK’s first baby product price comparison site.
With the average cost of a new baby weighing in at over £11,000 in the first year alone, NeeNoo is set to transform family shopping.
Here’s what Amisha had to tell us about the site when we spoke with her recently.
How exactly does NeeNoo work?
NeeNoo is the UK’s first price comparison site for baby products. The platform helps parents identify the best product for them and then helps them to buy it at the cheapest price.
Using exclusively designed filters, mums and dads are able to search for products of interest, read product descriptions, find real parent reviews and see pricing from all the major online and high street retailers – all in one place! We hope that the tool will simplify the buying journey and save parents both time and money every time they use our site.
What inspired you to found NeeNoo?
I used to be the babycare buyer for Ocado for three years and have a background in retail tech. However when I was pregnant with my own son, I saw first hand how confusing and unintuitive the shopping process was for new parents. I spent hours researching product specifications, reading the recommendations from other parents and then trying to find the products for the best price. I knew there had to be a better way and inspired by other easy-to-use sites like Tripadvisor, I set out to create a counterpart for parents.
Any top product suggestions for new parents?
Its differs from family to family! The real challenge for new parents is sifting through what you need and what you don’t.
My advice would be to firstly think about your lifestyle – are you sporty? A city dweller? Do you travel frequently? Are you planning to bottle feed? Etc. and then find products that are designed to support this.
It is useful to shortlist products that you think you will need in advance of the baby’s arrival. However, try to only buy the essentials for the hospital and the first few weeks at home. Most retailers offer a next-day delivery service and once your baby arrives, you will be best placed to judge whether you still want that item or require something different. Babies need very little when they are first born and this will also help ensure you are only buying what you really think you will use.
What kind of response has NeeNoo had so far?
We have been overwhelmed by all the kind words of support from mums and dads. We have had a message from a mum who have saved £30 from checking our site before she bought a baby thermometer (she put this towards a nice maternity dress for herself!). While other parents are enjoying researching products together in anticipation of the arrival of their newborn.
We also created a Facebook group where we hope parents will connect and share good deals that they may have come across. We are pleased that this is also fast becoming a support community for when you you have a quick question about pregnancy or babies and just need some advice from a fellow parent who has probably ‘been there, done that’.
Any tech parenting products out there that impress you?
This July, Pampers announced that they have been working with Google’s Life Sciences company to make a smart tracking device that is attached to a nappy. The sensor will track when children sleep, wee and poop. I think this technology will be really exciting as it will allow parents to chart the patterns of their child and quickly identify routines that best suit them. It will also be a game changer for nurseries and child minders as it will simplify tracking the needs of individual children when they are in a group setting.
