Dive Brief:

• Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Thursday that it’s boosting its baby segment with more products, including more expensive, higher quality items like smart car seats that warn parents when a baby has been left in a hot car. The retailer said that it has also added hundreds more baby products, including those from well-known brands like Baby Bjorn.

• Target is also focusing on the baby category as part of its turnaround. The retailer recently introduced a one-stop shop in 1,000 of its stores providing wellness products for new and expectant moms. 

• The segment is expected to grow even beyond the $1 trillion parents spend now, with older millennials settling down and starting families, according to a recent report from Goldman Sachs. 

Dive Insight:

With this new baby boom, expect more than Target and Wal-Mart, in fact, to work hard to attract new parents and to stock products that might appeal especially to millennial moms. That means, as far as we know so far, a focus on smart devices, good design, and good value. Still, what millennial parents really want is still being figured out, according to the Goldman Sachs report.

"How their parenting styles—and by extension their decisions on education and healthcare—will compare to Gen-X and Boomer parents, how their value system will evolve as they get older and as the economy improves” are all unknowns, the report says.