CNNMoney.com
Companies Economy International Corrections Pre-market Trading After-hours Trading Winners/Losers/Actives Bonds Currencies Commodities World Markets Money Magazine Real Estate Taxes Jobs Ask the Expert Money 101 Autos Mutual Funds The Help Desk Loan Center Best Places to Live Ask the Expert Ultimate Guide to Retirement Retirement Calculators Best Funds Best Places to Retire Fortune Brainstorm Tech Apple 2.0 Blog Big Tech Blog Sectors and Stocks Tech Talk Resource Guide Small Business Makeovers Questions & Answers Small Business Video 100 Best Places to Launch FSB 100 Fortune Small Business Fortune 500 Brainstorm Tech Investing Management C-Suite Rankings Main Create Portfolio Edit Portfolio Create Alerts Edit Alerts
Blinging up baby
They're fussy, pampered, and growing fast. No wonder toddlers are the favorite new target of luxury-goods marketers.
By Susanna Hamner, Business 2.0 Magazine writer-reporter

(Business 2.0 Magazine) - Pink leather Gucci shoes for $230. Louis Vuitton bags priced at $1,240. A $475 Hermes bathrobe. That's not a preview of fall runway fashions but a sample of new products available for babies. Yes, babies.

Couples waiting longer to start families have more discretionary income to spend on their offspring. Combine that with the recent boom in luxury products, and babies are a big opportunity for high-end brands. According to research firm Mintel International, consumers last year spent $445 billion overall on luxury goods, a 30 percent increase since 2000, and not all of it was for Mom and Dad. Sales of high-end products for babies grew an estimated 20 percent last year -- five times faster than the total $24 billion infant and preschool goods industry.

Photo GallerylaunchSee more photos

Click here for a photo gallery of just a few of the items aimed at the burgeoning boom.

To send a letter to the editor about this story, click hereTop of page

YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
Follow the news that matters to you. Create your own alert to be notified on topics you're interested in.

Or, visit Popular Alerts for suggestions.
Manage alerts | What is this?
© 2009 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2009 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are ET.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Morningstar, Inc..
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.