Amazon.com and BabyUniverse cuddle up

BabyUniverse Inc. has expanded its merchant relationship with Amazon.com. Prior to July 1 the company’s opportunity to market products on Amazon.com was limited by Amazon’s exclusive relationship with ToysRUs.com and BabiesRUs.com. In March Amazon lost its multi-year merchandising and e-commerce agreement with Toys “R” Us Inc., No. 31 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites, after the New Jersey Superior Court ruled that Toys “R” Us could terminate the contract by June 30.

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BabyUniverse, No. 235 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites, previously offered fewer than 1,000 products through Amazon.com in a subordinate position to products presented by BabiesRUs. Now BabyUniverse has increased its offering through Amazon to more than 20,000 products. The e-retailer has more than 120,000 products in its catalog and will increase the number of product offerings on Amazon during the coming months.

“While BabiesRUs remains the dominant market share leader within the online baby segment, we believe that a significant minority portion of the No. 1 market share previously controlled by the combined Amazon/BabiesRUs Internet property was attributable to traffic generated by Amazon.com,” says John Textor, chairman and CEO of BabyUniverse. “The opportunity to market directly to these customers through the trusted environment of Amazon.com is not only an opportunity to gain meaningful market share, it is an opportunity to build national awareness of all our Internet brands without the associated marketing expense.”

Since July 1 Amazon, No. 1 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites, has been rebuilding the toys section of its store and launched a new baby store. Amazon’s new toys category carries a wide variety of brands, including Fisher-Price, Hasbro, LeapFrog, Lego, Mattel and VTech. The new Amazon baby store carries a large collection of products for outfitting children from birth to 2 years old. The baby store also features an interactive registry.