WATCH – China’s baby boom: Aromababy and Lovekins on the opportunities and challenges baby care market

With the relaxation of the one-child policy and the trend of premiumisation across consumer goods, China’s baby care market is considered one of the most attractive in personal care.

However, it is still in the early stages of development and comes with its own set of challenges – including a strict new set of regulations.

Furthermore, the consumers in this segment – Chinese parents – are also notoriously fussy about the quality of care their children get.

“Chinese parents are worried and concerned about brands that enter the market and disappear after a short period of time or brands that perhaps don't focus on baby care as their core category,”​ said Catherine Cervasio, founder and CEO of Aromababy.

This deeply rooted fear of adulterated products stem from the infant formula scandal in 2008, said Amanda Essery, founder and CEO of Lovekins.

“Over a decade forward… we really saw that continuation of that heightened fear of Chinese parents still not trusting the quality of products.”​

While safety and efficacy are paramount, today’s Chinese parents are also scrutinising a brand’s social values.

“They really want to go behind the curtain to see what you present on the packaging is true… Where are the ingredients coming from? If you put Kakadu plum, where is that ingredient from? Does it come from Northern Territory or the Western Australian region? There are places around the world that have stolen plants from Australia and that’s not ethical… Origin is key,”​ said Essery.

Last year, China introduced the first Children’s Cosmetics Regulation and the Little Golden Shield mark to safeguard and protect their children.

Both Cervasio and Essery remarked that they welcomed this new set of rules and hoped it would strengthen the domestic baby care market.

“The market can only benefit from being more rigorous around these types of products and the criteria that these products have to meet. In fact, every region should have some guidelines around the importation and sale of baby cosmetics and beauty care products,”​ said Cervasio.

To find out more about how our experts believe China’s baby care market is set to evolve, check out our video above.