423The Predicament of the Domestic Mother and Baby Industry
In 2023, the number of newborns in China dropped to 9.02 million, setting the lowest record since the founding of New China. Among these newborns, a considerable proportion are second and third children.
As is well known, the most critical indicator for the mother and baby industry is the number of newborns, especially the first child.This is because the first child always receives the most meticulous care, while with the second and third children, parents have more experience and tend to be less attentive than with the first, reflecting the high purchasing power and commercial value of first-child users.
Compared with the record 28.13 million newborns in 1962, the number of newborns has decreased by an amount equivalent to the total population of two Singapores over the past 60 years. This is undoubtedly a huge challenge for the mother and baby industry.
Many offline mother and baby stores have already changed hands and become pet stores, while mother and baby brands, distributors, and factories are facing even greater pressure to transform.
Seeking New Paths: Cross-border E-commerce
In this context, competition in the domestic market is becoming increasingly fierce, and the cost of developing lower-level distributors or investing in more online channels is high with limited results. In contrast, cross-border e-commerce, including but not limited to TikTok, has become the new “hot spot.”
As Lei Jun once said at a press conference: “Without an excellent opportunity and a favorable trend, it is difficult to build a great business.”
TikTok has become an important channel for many traditional manufacturing bosses and domestic merchants to transform. Many domestic traders have keenly seized new channels and easily achieved annual sales of tens of millions on TikTok.
Moreover,the return rate of cross-border e-commerce is much lower than that of the domestic market, with higher profit margins and lower risks.
For example, “PatPat,” a children's clothing brand founded in 2014, identified a pain point in the US market—few categories and high prices. By offering high-quality, low-priced children's clothing products, it has won the favor of a large number of consumers. Today, PatPat has over 30 million users, has received seven rounds of financing, and has become the world's largest children's clothing DTC brand.
In addition to mother and baby brands, there are also examples of factory-type enterprises succeeding overseas through transformation.
For example,Cheerful Mario, established in 2012.
Cheerful Mario is a Shanghai-based brand focusing on children's footwear. Since its establishment, the brand has been committed to the design, development, sales, and production of sandals, slippers, home shoes, toddler shoes, and snow boots for children aged 0-6.
Faced with a nearly saturated domestic market, Cheerful Mario decided to expand into the Southeast Asian market in 2014. At that time, Southeast Asia, with its youthful population structure, immature industrial system, and huge consumer market, appeared to be a vibrant blue ocean.
After years of development, Cheerful Mario hasaccelerated its localization process through product design adapted to local conditions and a mature local distribution model, successfully ranking among the top in the children's footwear category on Shopee.
After TikTok entered Southeast Asia, Cheerful Mario did not miss this new social media opportunity, but actively marketed to expand its brand influence.
At present, Cheerful Mario has established a presence on all TikTok Shop sites in Southeast Asia and set up an overseas warehouse in Indonesia, continuing to optimize the order experience for Southeast Asian customers and distributors.
At the same time, Cheerful Mario continues to promote offline wholesale and retail,adhering to a sales structure with online as the main channel and offline as a supplement.
According to EchoTik data, Cheerful Mario's TikTok Shop in the Philippines achieved sales of270,000 USD in the past month.
There are many more brands in the mother and baby industry that have achieved success overseas and good sales on TikTok. For example,mother and baby product brand Tushbaby, new retail brand MAKUKU, Cat Daddy children's clothing, Xiong Enbei apparel, etc. They have all seen through the essence and opportunities of the market and chose to embark on a different path through TikTok.
The Future of the Mother and Baby Industry: Opportunities in Cross-border E-commerce
With the implementation of a new round of fertility policies, China's mother and baby market may usher in some turnaround. However, with nearly 8 million mother and baby enterprises sharing a market of just over 9 million newborns, the problem of “involution” remains severe.To truly break the deadlock, going overseas has become the only choice.
The TikTok platform not only provides new growth points for the mother and baby industry, but also, through its unique algorithm and user base, helps brands achieve precise marketing and efficient conversion.
For example, the milk powder brand Enfa launched the #DanceWithYourBaby challenge on TikTok, achieving nearly 400 million in popularity and greatly enhancing brand influence.
Cross-border e-commerce, especially TikTok, is providing new opportunities for mother and baby brands and factories. With flexible strategies and a keen grasp of the market, the mother and baby industry is expected to be revitalized in overseas markets.
