With Tot Squad At Walmart, Parents Can Register For Real Parenting Help

Darling onesies and tubes of Desitin are great baby shower gifts, but have you ever wished you could give new parents a service? Like access to a lactation coach or a consultation with a sleep expert? The wedding industry has hopped on the service bandwagon with giftable experiences like cooking classes, hot air balloon rides, and even winery tours; why not apply the same concept to baby shower registries? That’s what Tot Squad founder and CEO Jennifer Beall Saxton thought. Now her technology platform designed to support new parents has partnered with Walmart to make such parenting services easily addable to baby registries.

If you’re building a registry at Walmart, you may have noticed a new QR code in the baby section. This is a new way to add a service appointment — like a lactation consultant — to a baby registry and it’s all thanks to Tot Squad.

What is Tot Squad?

Tot Squad is a tech platform that makes finding parenting support services easy by connecting shoppers with service providers. Those include four different kinds of experts: sleep consultants, breastfeeding coaches and lactation consultants, diet and nutrition experts, and car seat technicians.

Saxton started Tot Squad in 2011 while attending Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. While there her business idea won first place in the Kellogg Cup Business Plan Competition.

Tot Squad began by providing services to families in Los Angeles with car seat installation, safety checks, and baby gear cleaning. Today, it’s a nationwide online marketplace where shoppers can find service providers, compare prices, and book consultants.

You can sign up for these services from Tot Squad’s site, or now, through Walmart.

How does Tot Squad at Walmart work?

Available both online and in 3,200 stores, both new parents and gift givers can shop at Walmart and Walmart.com to add Tot Squad services to registries or onto product purchases.

Here’s how it works. Let’s say you want to find a carseat on walmart.com. After locating the product of your choice, shoppers can click on "Get Expert Help," and for an additional fee, Tot Squad will add a consultation with a car seat technician.

Or, if you’re shopping in-store, look for QR codes to add a service to a registry or to buy one for expectant parents.

Once the parent receives the service gift, they can schedule the consultation to take place either in person or virtually depending on what’s most convenient to them and the provider.

Walmart pricing for these services are as follows: $44 for a car seat installation, $50 for a lactation consultant, and $50 for a sleep consultant. If there is a specific (and more expensive) provider on totsquad.com that the recipient wishes to hire, they can treat their Tot Squad X Walmart gift as store credit and pay for the difference themselves.

Many parents to be may not consider adding parenting services to their baby registry, but for those who feel especially unprepared and nervous about bringing a baby home, these helpful services can help with the transition.