Certainly the message that there is a choice seems to be getting out to parents with substantial numbers of parents who would buy or strongly consider buying a wide range of monitors including DaisyCam and Summer Infant. Unfortunately, this time, the survey didn't ask why they bought a particular brand, (we'll ask in a future survey) but something is persuading parents to buy Tomy and not other brands

In terms of the different types of baby monitor, the audio only option is still by far the most popular with 66% of parents buying one. A third of parents choose one with a motion sensor. However, only a third plan to get an audio monitor - 17% are considering a video monitor and 1 in 4 people are undecided, so there is a lot of opportunity to up-sell.

While up to 1 in 5 people buy their pushchairs or prams from an independent nursery shop, only 2% of people buy (or plan to buy) from an independent retailer. Nearly three-quarters buy from a national retailer (the others buy from the internet or second hand). There are two ways of looking at these figures. You could consider that for the independent nursery retailer the news is not good and therefore independent retailers shouldn't be buying monitors. An alternative view is that since customers are coming into the independent retailer, there is the opportunity to sell.

However, there is a snag! And that is price. Speaking to the independent trade, it is clear that monitors, as with many other electrical goods, are being sold in some multiples for low prices which the independent trade simply cannot match. Is this a good market move? With many other product categories, the suppliers have realised the importance of the independent trade and the danger of only selling to a select group of multiples, so what is different about monitors?

^{*The Wilkinet Survey spoke to 138 people (parents or pregnant) at the end of May 2007}