NoChild’sPlay
I have to compromise and pay the price for my career pursuit. But I want my daughter to witness the spirit of pursuing one’s self-esteem and independence.
Liu Nan, founder of Mia.com, leading baby and mother care product store
Her own experience shopping online for baby care products turns a full-time mom into an astute business woman
By Liu Jian
Liu Nan went into business in 2011 with a small shop on Taobao, the Chinese website for business-to-consumer retail, selling diapers online. Today, the 32-year-old has grown it to Mia.com, one of the biggest online baby and maternity stores in China.
Last year, she was honored as one of “China’s Top 10 Entrepreneurs” by the Startup Blackhorse Group, a Chinese company offering startup services, for her e-commerce venture. The award is regarded as the highest honor in the Chinese startup community.
Finding a niche market
Born in Xi’an in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, Liu graduated from Beijing-based Peking University School of Journalism and Communication in 2008. Her first job was as a management trainee with the American multinational Dow Chemical Co. But she found the job uninteresting and quit, becoming a full-time mother in 2011.
“Like any new mother, I wanted to give the best in the world to my little daughter,” she said, explaining what motivated her to start her online store. To find out the best baby products available - from diapers and infant formulas to feeding bottles and strollers - Liu scanned customers’ comments on foreign websites such as Amazon. com. In the course of buying foreign brands for her baby, she posted several hundred reviews herself, introducing and comparing popular ones, which made her an opinion leader in Chinese moms’ online forums. While sharing her shopping experience with her peers, Liu found a business opportunity, and her passion.
“The demand for imported mother and baby care products is growing rapidly in China as more and more Chinese parents believe they are of better quality,” she said. Parents wonder where to buy quality imported products at a reasonable price combined with convenience. “Inconvenient delivery services, language barriers, relatively high retail prices and counterfeit products create hurdles for Chinese buyers,” she said.
It made her think, why not open a store to help new mothers. Having identified a business opportunity, she started a Taobao store in 2011, selling Japanese diapers.
Through mothers’ word-of-mouth advertising, her online store received more and repeat customers. In two years, its annual sales exceeded 30 million yuan ($4.59 million).
In March 2014, Liu formed her own company with an independent online shop Mia.com, selling imported mother and baby care goods at competitive prices. Its main target is China’s rising middle class.
“Their demand for best quality products is increasing,” she said. “Instead of cheap items sold on the Internet, they want high-end products from across the globe for their kids.”
Just a tinkle away
Competitive prices are a key driver for the growing demand. More and more e-commerce players like Liu are bypassing traditional importers and sales agents to source goods directly from abroad. This way, she can save around 20 percent on costs and offer lower prices to customers.
Taking customers’ needs as the priority, Liu pays much attention to consumers buying goods on their cellphones. Her company’s mobile app has enjoyed substantial growth since it was launched in June 2014. According to Liu, mobile shopping accounts for over 80 percent of total sales.
It’s also more effective to promote products on the phone, according to Liu. “When a mother buys diapers, we know she needs spoons and a dining chair for her kid in the next stage,” Liu said. “Buyers get recommendations for other products.”
As a newcomer to this e-commerce arena with fierce competition, Liu realized that she must act fast and be more competitive. “Otherwise you may not survive when others copy your business model,” she said.
Liu Nan, founder and CEO of Mia.com, one of the biggest online baby and maternity stores in China COURTESY PHOTO
In the Government Work Report last March, Premier Li Keqiang emphasized the need for more entrepreneurship and innovation to vitalize the economy. Since then, a series of state policies, such as tax reduction and “Internet plus,” the application of the Internet and other information technology in conventional businesses, have been announced to help innovation and entrepreneurship.
Thanks to these preferential policies, young, capable and ambitious Chinese entrepreneurs like Liu today have the opportunity to realize their potential. Consequently, while China’s economic growth has slowed, the number of new innovative enterprises has increased dramatically.
The price of success
The new mom is often asked how she balances her personal life with her business. When she set up the company, her daughter was about 2 years old. “Actually, there is no balance,” Liu said. “When I started the business, my only state was all in. The only time I could be with my daughter was in the morning when we had breakfast together and I took her to the kindergarten.” However, she would try to compensate by taking out the child at least one day on weekends.
“I have to compromise and pay the price for my career pursuit,” she added. “But I want my daughter to witness the spirit of pursuing self-esteem and independence.”
Liu thinks while women entrepreneurs have more patience and better communication skills, they, however, tend to be more emotional and are more easily distracted. “When I get emotional, I give myself time to release my emotions without making any big decisions. When that time is up, I know I need to cheer up and go back to work again,” she said. “You need to be rational and coolheaded when making big decisions. Usually most women are not good at that. We have to overcome this weakness to succeed.”
Spreading her wings
When Liu opened her online store, imported mother and baby care products were easily available only to a small number of wealthy families in China. But today many foreign brands have become household names in China’s big cities. “It won’t take long for the shopping fever for foreign products to expand to smaller cities or even counties,” Liu said.
Last year, Liu expanded her business from online to a brick-and-mortar store. She opened her first 280-square-meter store at a high-end resort in the tourist city of Sanya in Hainan, a tropical island province in south China. To tap the growing family travel market, she is planning more stores at other tourist sites and holiday resorts.
China’s new policy of allowing couples to have a second child is expected to boost the mother and baby care goods market. “Sales of daily necessities, such as diapers and infant formulas, will increase, while higher-value products, such as strollers, infant car seats and baby food processors, are expected to be in great demand,” she said. “We estimate that families in third- and fourth-tier cities will be the major beneficiaries of this policy. We will shift our expansion focus to these places in the future.” CA