The following article was originally published by “Xin Mu Ying Dian”. Source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/yl_hp0lFruwVYpX27mWLyA
Last year, during market visits by Xin Mu Ying Dian, the elimination rate of maternity and baby shops in various regions was generally between 20% and 30%. This year, however, practitioners in some areas have reported that the elimination rate has further increased, with half of the local maternity and baby stores closing down.
“Several shops have closed down in the area in the past month.” “Some stores have no customers and don’t even turn on the lights.”… It can be said that offline maternity and baby shops are at risk. However, even in the worst market environments, there are still people making money. The overall environment won’t change; the only solution is to change oneself. In 2024, Xin Mu Ying Dian visited markets in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and Anhui, seeing firsthand that many maternity and baby stores were still thriving, demonstrating the resilience and creativity of people in the maternity and baby industry under adversity.
After a major shake-out, what have these still-prospering maternity and baby stores done right?
Cultivate a private domain to improve customer loyalty and build a personal IP
Currently, the value of private domain traffic is increasingly highlighted. For maternity and baby shops, building and maintaining a solid community of members is key to competitive advantage. The most common approach is to create mothers’ groups. It is understood that in places like Hangzhou, many shops establish mothers’ groups to enhance member stickiness, with some shop’s group buying participation reaching over 50%.
Secondly, leveraging social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) and Douyin (TikTok) to drive traffic and actively create a personal or shop IP image. Through regularly holding group purchase events, sharing parenting knowledge, and offering personalized consulting services, they enhance users’ sense of belonging and trust. A practitioner who transitioned from running a maternity and baby shop to focusing on private domains shared with Xin Mu Ying Dian that the profits were low and the costs high when running the shop; but now with “1,000 active mothers in hand, serving customers nationwide,” they first attract users on Xiaohongshu and Douyin and then guide them into their private domain community. “Just selling a2 brand formula, they can sell forty cases in a month.”
Improve services by diversifying and professional management, extending to more consumer demographics
Faced with the challenge of declining birth rates and insufficient newborns, some maternity and baby shops focus on expanding and strengthening professional services. Some provide additional services such as infant massage and swimming, creating a second growth curve for the shop. Meanwhile, they work on extending the customer lifecycle, expanding services from infants to children and even teenagers. “Now some maternity and baby shops are using robots with traditional Chinese medicine systems that can diagnose and take pulses, aimed at the full age range of the community,” shared a practitioner. Using modern technology to provide convenient health consultation services to a larger consumer demographic and broadening business boundaries might be a viable path for the transformation and upgrading of maternity and baby shops.
Offer good nutritional products, grasping health needs accurately
With consumers becoming more health-conscious, nutritional products have become a new growth point for maternity and baby shops. Some forward-thinking shops are keeping pace with market trends and surviving by meeting the diversified health needs of pregnant women, infants, and family members.
“Whole family nutrition has not yet fully popularized offline, but cross-border e-commerce products for intestinal conditioning are selling well.” “The allergic population is increasing, hence our nutrition products for allergies are selling well.” “Pregnant women generally have intestinal issues and greatly need probiotic nutritional products.” Although the nutritional product market has significant short-term profits, there is a large variance in operational demands among different market needs and product types. Maternity and baby shops need to strengthen their professional capabilities to seize the market opportunity and avoid fruitless efforts.
Excel in children’s clothing, reclaiming traditional category advantages
As a traditional category of maternity and baby shops, children’s clothing did not seem to be the focus of discussion or attention for practitioners for some time. However, upon visiting the market, we found that shops focusing on children’s clothing as their main category are navigating through these tough times. The reasons behind this are the high-profit margins of children’s clothing and the advantages of offline fitting experiences.
Specifically, the maternity and baby shops that do well in children’s clothing usually have owners or staff who pay close attention to selecting and coordinating children’s clothing, keeping up with fashion trends while being knowledgeable about the comfort and safety of various fabrics. They can win consumers’ recognition and trust with their high-quality professional skills and aesthetic pairing suggestions.
In summary, the maternity and baby shops that continue to thrive through adversity tell us: No matter how the market environment changes, continuous internal improvement and exploration of one’s own differentiated competitive advantages are the key to withstand economic cycles and maintain stability.
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