Didofy celebrates 5th birthday
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As pushchair brand didofy celebrates its 5th birthday this week, we asked Director Josephine Votsis to tell us more about the brand, views on the market and ambitions for the future. Here’s what she had to say…
Tell us a bit about you and your brand. What inspired you to set up didofy?
didofy was born after we became first-time parents. We couldn’t understand why pushchairs were so complicated to fold. We watched trained shop staff struggling with them, and wondered how we were going to manage it ourselves. We also couldn’t work out why all of them had to be operated with two hands; putting our baby down to concentrate on the pushchair seemed like madness. The tipping point was watching grandma struggle with the pushchair and ask to be shown how to open and close it again and again. It sounds simple, but life changes so much when a new baby comes along and the last thing you need is added stress!
Our mission at didofy is to cut out this stress, making it effortless for parents, grandparents and caregivers to fold their pushchair one-handed, while still holding onto baby. We design and create stylish, functionally brilliant and easy-folding pushchairs that parents will love and can be proud of. We currently have two travel systems available in the UK, our auto-folding Lotus and gravity-folding Cosmos., with more launches planned.
What are the foundations on which your brand has been built and how does this translate into every day?
Every product we produce has the common feature of being easy to fold with one hand, so that parents can always have the other hand free to hold their baby.
Making parents’ lives as stress-free as possible is one of the core values of didofy as a company. Listening to the real issues experienced by parents plays an invaluable role in the development of our designs for new products. In turn, our customer service team tries to go above and beyond to guide and assist wherever possible.
It's didofy’s fifth birthday in October. What does this mean to you and how are you celebrating?
Like all birthdays, this is a very exciting milestone for us. Five years of didofy marks our ‘wooden anniversary’. We are excited to celebrate by giving something back to members of our didofy family, new and current.
Not only are we offering a 5% discount on every purchase from our site, we are also including some lovely wooden baby gifts with each order! There will also be a surprise pressie for our 30+ retailers, as a thank you for the fantastic support they have shown us.
What do you love about being in the nursery business?
Becoming a parent is such a joyful time and every day, we are lucky enough to interact with people beginning this amazing journey. It goes without saying that parenthood is also pretty nerve-wracking, with so many decisions to be made and a flood of information about how to make them. For us, it’s a privilege to work with retailers who have devoted their professional lives to alleviating some of these concerns for parents.
What are your top three greatest achievements so far?
One of them has to be our innovative designs and the added features we have built into them. For example our Lotus pushchair, with its patented fold, opens and closes at the touch of a button. It even has an inbuilt mobile phone charger!
We are really proud that our products have received positive attention and as a result we have won several awards, including a Dadsnet Gold and have been shortlisted for other prestigious awards such as Mother & Baby 2021 for Best Pushchair.
As the didofy family grows, the most rewarding part is receiving positive feedback from our customers, especially when they have already tried and other pushchair brands and made the swap to didofy. Having kids is something really personal and didofy are delighted to be part of every family’s story.
Why should a retailer stock your products, and can you offer them anything special?
We are regularly being told that doing demos of didofy pushchairs is a joy as they are so easy to use and fold. One stockist has referred to didofy as “the easiest demo we have each day.” It’s such a pleasure to hear that our retailers appreciate our products as much as we do. In addition, we offer very attractive margins and marketing support so prospective retailers won’t be disappointed.
How has your brand reacted to the coronavirus pandemic and have you had to change the way you do business?
When the virus first hit, we wanted to help as best we could and set our sights on supporting those on the front lines. Our team designed and made visors for NHS and care home staff to help keep them safe and well.
In terms of changes to the business, we focused more on our digital presence where we developed and fine-tuned our targeting algorithms. We provided Zoom sessions for prospective parents to give them a feel for the products but, nothing, in reality, can fully replicate seeing our travel systems in person. This is why our retailer partners are so important to us.
What three top tips would you give someone considering setting up a brand in the parenting industry, particularly with the current challenges?
We often get asked this. The most important aspect is to ensure you are helping solve a genuine problem or struggle for parents. Do thorough research and just don’t rely on friends and family telling you that it is a great idea. Make sure you know your target audience and how you can reach them. Lastly, prepare yourself for a hard (but fun) journey.
What exciting plans do you have for the year ahead into 2021 (if you are happy to reveal them!)?
We have a couple of new pushchairs ready to launch in the coming months which we are excited about. Watch this space…
Find out more about didofy
You can find out more about didofy’s range of pushchairs on their website or by emailing the team on sales@didofy.com.
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