In any industry, the development of various niche segments is dynamic, and when extended to different platforms, the level of differentiation keeps increasing day by day. Looking back at the Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) scene in 2024, why did the maternity and infant category thrive, and what were the trend directions?
Strong Supply Categories: Children’s Wear Accounts for More than Half of Sales, Continuously Climbing
Clothing has always been one of the strongest categories on the Douyin e-commerce platform, with data revealing that Douyin’s clothing sales were estimated to break through the trillion RMB mark for the first time in 2024. Children’s wear, an extremely important sub-category, also encountered new opportunities for development on the Douyin platform. According to Feigua Data, in 2024, the sales share of children’s wear/baby clothing/family matching outfits on Douyin’s e-commerce platform reached 53.25%, with a sales increase of 62.41%, which undoubtedly highlights the important role of the children’s clothing category in the platform’s sales landscape.
Diving deeper into the trend trajectory of the children’s wear category on Douyin, one aspect is that high-value autumn and winter apparel drove October to December to become the sales peak season for the category. In this phase, features such as warmth and wind protection became highly promoted selling points, with brands competing more on professional performance. Secondly, the growth rate of children’s everyday wear slowed down, as consumers are willing to pay for uniqueness and specific occasions, with items like windbreakers, outdoor clothing, and children’s traditional Chinese clothing showing significant growth potential.
Opportunity Categories Under Trends: Outpacing the Overall Market, Infant and Toddler Foods Experience New Growth Trajectories
As the primary category in the maternity and infant industry, infant and toddler foods not only attract heated competition among brands but also form a focal point for omnichannel layout. Examination shows that previously more effort was concentrated on Jingdong and Taotian platforms. With Douyin’s rise, the infant and toddler food category has embarked on a new round of growth.
Data from Chamo Cube indicates that from January to November 2024, the year-over-year growth rate for milk powder/supplementary foods/snacks/nutritional products within the Douyin maternity and infant sector reached 41.75%, with evident market scale growth. Additionally, comparing the market share from January to November 2023, the share of milk powder/supplementary foods/snacks/nutritional products increased to 21.25%.
Within the category, infant nutrition products, toddler milk powder (Stage 3), and baby complementary foods rank the top three in market scale, with infant milk powder (Stage 1) leading in growth speed.
At its core, over the past year, the growth momentum of infant nutrition products across all channels has been clearly evident, transforming from non-essential to essential, shifting from a side dish to the main course, and moving from niche to mainstream. These are not only consumption highlights but also the brightest growth trends.
From the demand perspective, the new generation of maternity and infant users has fully awakened to the concept of delicate nurturing, expressing robust demand and keen interest in infant and toddler foods that offer premium quality, scientific formulation, nutritional content, and effective components.
At the same time, based on Douyin platform’s professional explanations and scientific guidance by mothering influencers, the category education, customer awareness, and consumer mindset for infant and toddler nutrition products have become more mature, directly leading to sales conversion and long-term repurchases.
Potential Categories Under New Scenarios and Demands:
The Awakening of Pregnant Women’s Consumption, Rapid Development in the Children’s Shoe Market
For a long period, the maternity and infant industry focused on “infants and toddlers,” and consequently, the consumption potential of pregnant women was underestimated. Although the popularity of ‘her economy’ and self-gratifying consumption has propelled the development of pregnancy-related categories to some degree, their sustainability was not strong. “Emotional value satisfaction” has become a new direction and idea for exploring incremental growth in the maternity sector.
Against this backdrop, categories that meet the expectations of pregnant women’s consumption and are based on quality experiences for this demographic have gained substantial traffic and attention. For example, nursing bras, pregnancy-specific milk powder, postpartum nutritional supplements, and breast care products. Take nursing bras as an example—features such as anti-sagging, side breast reduction, and lifting effects are most sought after by consumers. Based on specific scenarios, consumers opt for products with characteristics like larger sizes, loose fits, ‘nude’ feel, and high elasticity. Likewise, for maternal milk powder, pregnant women concerned about excessive weight gain during pregnancy tend to choose low-fat or non-fat milk powders, and lactose intolerant ones may prefer lactose-free options.
Beyond maternal product categories, children’s shoes/baby shoes/family shoes are also worth attention. From the perspective of the user, the new generation of parents is increasingly concerned about the detailed attire needs of their babies at different growth stages, seasons, and occasions. In this process, not only does children’s clothing need to match, but children’s shoes also need to maintain consistency. Correlated with clothing, as children and teenagers’ demand for outdoor activities increases, this has stimulated a rapid burst in niche children’s shoe categories such as hiking shoes, retro sneakers, badminton shoes, and technical running shoes.
To sum up, the prominent trends on Douyin’s e-commerce platform in 2024 include children’s clothing sales surpassing half, food category increases leading the way, and enormous potential in pregnancy-related categories. Looking forward to the new year, which categories offer boundless opportunities, and which will ride the momentum of growth? We will continue to monitor closely.
Keywords:
- CBME 2024 exhibitor registration and fees
- Wholesale baby shower decorations and gifts
- B2B networking events maternity and baby tradeshow
Disclaimer: this article was originally published by Maternity and baby industry. Sources: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/6-VKN_qaM3kX4Vlo-NxTgg.
