The Nappy Lady Ltd

Help & FAQs

Does it cost anything to receive advice?

The advice I offer is completely free and without any kind of obligation. Moreover, the nappy prices are not loaded to compensate, and I also offer a 5% discount on all your nappy orders when you've used my advice service. Obviously, at the end of the day, buying your nappy products from The Nappy Lady is what enables me to offer this service free of charge, but there is certainly no small print that comes with my advice.

If you think I've done a good job, I would hope you would want to buy your nappy products from The Nappy Lady, when the time comes. I'm there not only to help you make a choice appropriate to your circumstances, but also afterwards for the whole period your children are in nappies.

Do you have an advisor near me?

Advice is primarily by email (and phone) so it doesn't matter where in the world you are, we'll be able to help you.  We also offer demos and fittings at our warehouse GU16 6DL by appointment and we can also offer Skype and Zoom demos. Whenever when you ask The Nappy Lady for help, you're going to get excellent advice from an experienced cloth nappy user!

 
How do I promote cloth nappies? I'd like to get involved!

First decide what you want to do. Do you want to increase awareness of real nappies, do you want to advise people on how to choose and use them, or do you want to retail them? Obviously, there will be some overlap here, but what it comes down to is whether you want to treat this more as a job you love or a cause.

I would advise you to be clear about what you mean by “promoting real nappies”. There is a degree of (well-meant) misinformation circulating around about disposables, and I'd advise you to avoid this. The trouble is, like ex-smokers, real nappy converts can be somewhat evangelical in pursuit of the cause. It does your credibility no good if a claim you make (eg. on chemical or environmental issues) is successfully challenged by someone you are talking to. They will think “well, if she’s wrong about that, why should I listen to the rest?”. Also, no parent wants to be told that the parenting decision that they have made for their child is wrong. That will just make them defensive.

My advice would be to stress the positive benefits of real nappies rather than knocking disposables. Believe it or not i'm not against the occassional disposable but i certainly wouldn't want to use them all the time (just like paper plates, have their uses but not a daily product!). If you quote large chunks of this website, please provide your listener with our contact or website information so that they can find out more for themselves. Wherever possible, we supply source information so people can check things out for themselves.

There are pros and cons to each of these routes, and these are the issues you ought to consider before deciding one way or the other:

  1. What is the upfront cost?
  2. Are stock and payment handled by me or by someone else?
  3. What are the risks to me if it does not work out?
  4. Is there any kind of tie-in clause which would limit me from promoting cloth nappies another way?
  5. How much training and support are offered/available?
  6. How would this work out with my own family situation? Would I need to pay for childcare to do it? (realistically speaking, it is simply not possible to take your child along to demonstration sessions - once they've seen it all before a few times, they get bored, and start trashing your potential customer's house, which is not ideal!).
  7. What does it pay and realistically how much can I expect to earn for x hours work per week?
  8. Where do my customers come from - self-generated or provided by someone else?
  9. What ongoing expenses are involved? eg travel costs, advertising.
  10. Can I speak to a number of people who already do it this way, so that they can tell me their own experiences?

Unlike most other nappy advisor compnanies my team of advisors DO NOT work on commission, I never want a Nappy Lady Advisor to feel pressurised to hit a sales targest. Guess what THEY DON'T have ANY sales targets! It will not make any difference to them whatever nappy you buy budget or luxury!    Parents are VERY cost aware now and regardless if you've come out and spent a couple of hours doing a demonstration for them (I've been to demo groups that have run for over 4 hours!) Parents will then compare prices online (I get parents comparing prices online at demos sometimes) and will search for what you've recommended at the cheapest price. Companies that have advisors tend to have higher prices. This is because advisors need to be paid commission, someone needs to be employed to train and manage the advisor team therefore this leads to higher product prices and makes that company less price competitive. As an advisor you've spent time preparing for the demo, travel costs and then the actual demo, then only to lose the sale to someone else who is cheaper (sorry that might be me!) For this reason we stopped our advising team as it was no longer fair on the advisors.

Do you do nappy demonstrations?

I hold demos from our warehouse in Ash Vale, Aldershot GU12 5QJ. At a demo you can see the nappies, discuss using cloth nappies in general and if baby has arrived you can have a nappy fitting as well so i can help you ensure the fit is right. Please be aware you are coming to a working warehouse and not a shop so make sure you wear warm clothes in winter and cool clothes in summer as well as sensible shoes.

If you don't live near me I will still be able to help you via email or phone or even on a Skype demo. I will weed out the unsuitable nappies before you order a trial to view/practise with them. I have also put my Nappy Lady demonstration videos online, both on the site and on my YouTube page.

If you do book a home demo with another seller, keep the following thoughts in mind: A home demo is only as good as the person showing you the products, because they can guide you. Laying out a selection of nappies and saying “take your pick” is a sure way to get it wrong. As a buyer, you need to know why nappy A is better for your circumstances than nappy B.

A good home demonstrator should ask you a whole series of questions like the ones on our advice questionnaire, because they cannot make a recommendation to you until they know more about your lifestyle and limitations. Don’t buy unless you feel reassured that they know what they are talking about - an agent should receive full training from their company to be a successful home demonstrator (ie successful for you, not just them!).

This is why I work from the circumstance analysis first, and only then suggest you send off for a trial nappy to look at, in the comfort of your own home, without any feeling that someone is hovering, waiting for you to make a decision. You probably already know the pressure to buy when you get invited to a Tupperware or cosmetics party, and the cost implication here is so much higher.

A good home demonstrator for nappies should never pressurise you, and I don’t want to imply that any deliberately do. However, they will have spent 2 hours or so of their time with you, and there is a limit to how many people they can show nappies to in a week, so of course they will be hopeful that you will buy something. That’s human nature, and it places an underlying pressure on both demonstrator and demonstratee.

If you are coming to a demonstration I normally write your advice letter first, and the demonstration is complementary to this. I will never put any sales pressure at the end of the demonstration and encourage people to go away and think about what they'd like. People are often surprised when i tell them they are thinking of buying TOO much and I scale back their order. Lots of people get a trial pack with 2 or 3 potentially suitable nappies, so they can just return the one(s) they don’t want.

How do you decide what to stock?

I’m very strict about what nappies and related products I stock. I’ve been asked many times by suppliers if I want to stock their slings and various other items. However I want to keep The Nappy Lady as just that … Nappies and other bottom related lines!* If you ask me about slings my knowledge is very limited, I know what did and didn’t work for me but I’m in no way qualified or experienced enough to recommend what will work for you. If on the otherhand you phone up for nappy advice i could talk all day long. If you’ve ever come to one of my nappy demos you’ll know i can easily talk about nappies for a good few hours!

I’ve tried and used everything on the site for at least one of my children and for many of the more established brands they will have been used on all three children. I’ve also tried FAR more lines than are on the site as only the very best will make it through. If it’s on The Nappy Lady site you know it’ll be a fantastic nappy from a fantastic manufacturer.

What does it take to make it as a Nappy Lady nappy?

Quality. The nappy needs to have proved it’s ability to do the job it was designed for and to do it exceptionally well. I won’t stock lots of nappies that are basically the same design, I will choose the best quality one. You’ll see i have a limited choice of pocket nappies this is because currently i can’t beat the Bumgenius nappy! There are lots of nappies that are virtually the same but just not up to the Bumgenius quality fabrics and well thought out design and features. I am looking to expand this section and I’m testing lots of different sorts now, as I would like to find a cheaper alternative and ideally UK manfactured pocket nappy. Reviews of my testing coming over the next few months….

Ability to Supply. There are many wonderful Work At Home Mum products which I would love to stock but they just can’t offer a consistent enough supply, some of my smallest suppliers already struggle with the pressure of sudden order surges. Where possible I try to help bring smaller companies to a wider audience so if you are a small supplier always contact me i would love to try your products.

Value for Money. Using cloth nappies should save you lots of money however if you start getting “addicted” to cloth it can turn a cost saving system into an expensive hobby. I only stock “sensibly” priced products, there are some wonderful £20+ nappies and bespoke wraps out there but for me that’s not what The Nappy Lady is about. I’ll advise and sell you what is suitable for your circumstances and in the cheapest way i can. I’ve got nothing against the expensive nappies but you need to get a lot of wear out of a £20 wrap to make it economical. In these economically challenging times it’s easy to be attracted to cheaper nappies however if they aren’t going to work properly then it will be a waste of money. I sell many lines on special offers or discounted prices, you can guarantee they are still excellent nappies. They might be cheap but they won’t be nasty!

Import. Where possible I stock UK manufactured nappies. My most popular brands of Totsbots and Easy Peasy are made in the UK. Sometimes i can’t get away from imports as there just isn’t anything better, Motherease is a Canadian company but in my opinion their wraps have never been beaten in terms of fit, quality, containment and longevity. I do stock UK made wraps but will always suggest you get Motherease first.v

Niche. They may be products which I don’t especially like or love but fit a gap in the market and are the best that is currently available. The Nature Babies birth to potty essential wrap is an example. It does the job it’s designed for and is a bargain price however initially it’s not the easiest wrap to use. I’ll highlight the pros and cons of lines like these.

Sufficient Demand. An example is hemp nappies. These weren’t stocked these for a long time but then demand grew for them so Hemp Nappies were added to The Nappy Lady range. A few years later along came bamboo fabric and the demand of hemp dropped significantly. The hemp nappies were eventually removed from the range. Recently the much loved hemp super boosters made way for the bamboo/microfibre superboosters! There was nothing wrong with the hemp nappies at all but the market changed. As much as it would be great to keep them all space and stock holding are limited.

I've seen something you don't stock

Ask us! We’ll tell you if there’s a good reason why we don’t stock it, and even if we don’t we can maybe get it for you through our contacts. To be a bit more specific, we can get it if it's a nappy product or is another baby-related product sold by one of our regular suppliers. We can’t get hold of white goods and computers for you, so don’t ask!

 
Which payment methods do you accept?

We accept secure online payments via debit cards, credit cards (including American Express), PayPal, and by personal cheque. Please be aware that your cheque will need to clear before any items can be dispatched. We can also arrange payment by BACS but please contact us to arrange this method as it's not an automatic option on the website.

We accept Council Nappy Vouchers including: Real Nappies For London (RNFL) and Denbighshire/Flintshire.

 
When will I pay for my order?

If you choose to pay via debit/credit card your card will be charged at the time of ordering. If you choose to pay via PayPal the payment will come straight out of your PayPal balance or, if you don't have a PayPal balance, from your related bank account normally within 3-10 days. If you pay via cheque, you'll need to post this and it will be banked at a later date. Your order will not be posted until payment has been cleared.

Is shopping with you secure?

Absolutely! Our shop is protected by secure payment processors. You'll notice the 'https' in the url (address bar) when you go through the checkout stage. This means your details are currently being protected by 128bit secure technology. However, if you're still unsure, give us a call and we'll talk you through another way of paying for your order.