How we work (and why trust us!)

Hello there! Thanks for dropping by to learn more about us.

BabyBargains.com started as the online home of the best-selling book, Baby Bargains. Authored Denise & Alan Fields, Baby Bargains is a comprehensive guide to baby gear. In our book, we recommend baby gear, from cribs to strollers, car seats to high chairs.

On this site, we’ve taken our approach to expert product reviews and expanded our research to include gear for older kids, families, moms, dads and the home. Yes, that includes our famous reviews of all things pumpkin spice. You’re welcome.

So what, you say? Why should I trust you guys?

Glad you asked! Over 2 million parents have put their trust in Baby Bargains and we’ll boil it down to three reasons:

1. Experience.
2. Independence.
3. Expert.

Experience How we work (and why trust us!)

We have been researching, reviewing and rating products for families and the home since 1994. (Yes, that long!). This is what we do—we obsess about gear so you don’t have to.

We have many fine competitors online but we challenge you to find one who has as much experience in the family category as Baby Bargains. In fact, other sites cite our research as a source for how they come up with their baby or parent-related gear recommendations (yes, we are looking at you, the Wirecutter.)

How did we get here?

First, we do hands-on research. To get hands-on time with products, we regularly meet one-on-one with gear companies and even tour manufacturing facilities. (When we do this, we pay our own expenses . . . more on that  in a moment).

The result: you get the most reliable gear reviews you can find, online or off.

In our reviews, you’ll find the back stories to brands and even some surprises folks don’t want you to know (Surprise! Those strollers with Dutch names are actually made in China).

How do we get to do this? That’ brings us to reason number 2 . . .

Independence

Let’s do something you won’t hear from bloggers or influencers: we’re going to tell you exactly how we make money.

We make a living from sales of our print book and affiliate commissions. What is that? When you read a review that is on our site, there will be an affiliated link to purchase the product. These links go to trusted online retailers.

If you purchase a product from a link on this site, we may get a small commission. FYI: These links do not raise the price you pay as a consumer. And we don’t track what you buy—the data is anonymous.

Here is our official disclosure for our affiliate links to Amazon:

Do you see anything missing? That’s right—we do NOT take money from the brands we review. No cash, no free samples, no gift baskets. When we fly to see a manufacturer’s factory, we pay ALL of our travel expenses. The result: we tell you how it really is.

Let’s talk about a dirty secret of bloggers and influencers who “review” baby gear. Many take free product to give away in contests. Others accept samples in exchange for a review. Some insist on cash—one influencer (spit!) takes $600 from baby gear startups to be listed in an email newsletter called “Products We Love!” 

When you pay someone cash to love you, what’s the word for that?

Bottom line: gear for families is big business. And companies that make these products aren’t stupid—they pay money and lavish samples on influencers in order to, well, influence. As a result, you get reviews where bloggers rave about how wonderful a car seat is or how cute this stroller looks.

Which brings us back to Baby Bargains—since we don’t money from brands we review, you get independent reviews you can trust.

Expert

Want to see something really scary? Take a look at this:

Yes, that my friends, is a luggage scale. It strikes fear and terror among a certain group of people—those who make baby strollers.

Why?

That’s because stroller makes often brag about how little their strollers weigh, knowing that is a key feature consumers look for. Lightweight strollers are preferred over those that weigh more than 25 lbs.

So here’s our secret sauce: we carry a portable luggage scale with us when we evaluate new strollers. And wouldn’t you know it? The ACTUAL weight of strollers is often more than what marketers state. Surprised?

It’s that little bit of fact checking that separates Baby Bargains from others baby gear review sources online. Most simply take the maker’s word on a stroller’s weight. We verify.

We take that same approach to all products we review, aiming to produce thorough product reviews that go deeper than our competitors.

We combine a detailed analysis with our reader feedback—that is our secret sauce. Every day, readers post 1000+ threads on our message boards. We use this real world consumer feedback to guide our reviews.

Can you just read consumer reviews online at the big sites? Sure—but it often like drinking out of a fire hose. Who has time to sift through 1187 reviews for that kid product? And of course, a certain number of those reviews are fake. Surveys show that up to 29% of all “customer” reviews on major sites are fake, posted or paid for by manufacturers.

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So there you have it in a nutshell—what we do and why you should trust us. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to us. The door is always open!

How we work (and why trust us!)