Beibei will be following her online shopping passion with a bi-weekly report on new online shopping trends in the market. This week’s topic explores the online shopping trends of new mothers and the un-sustainability of this habit.

As an expecting mother, 9 months of pregnancy is an both an exciting and exhausting period of time. In 2009, over 16 million Chinese mothers endured this child bearing passage to give birth to their wondrous bundles of joy. This 9 month period of time often represents 9 months of relative isolation and rest time for Chinese mothers, sparking what has become an unbelievable growth in online purchasing power.

This period of time for expecting Chinese mothers is a traditional period known as 坐月子 (Zuo Yuezi), which translates to “sitting the month”. Chinese people recognize “Zuo Yuezi” as a period when the mother’s body, including hormone levels and uterus size, returns to pre-pregnancy conditions. It usually lasts 30 days, but regional variants may last 60, 90 or as many as 6 months. Tradition specifies a restricted diet and puts limitations on activities considered to be harmful. During Zuo Yuezi, the mother is expected to spend all of her time indoors, much of it in bed, and is prohibited from numerous activities such as bathing, hair-washing etc. Online Chinese shopping sites have come to the rescue for antsy moms-to-be. Because of its convenience, new mothers increasingly go online both to look for necessities and entertainment.

New moms like meeting other moms with a baby of the same age. The BBS of Liba.com, a locally-based white collar household guide, has proven itself as the top online spot for moms to exchange various information including baby education, postpartum recovery etc. Moms post link recommendations in their online groups when they find good-quality baby items online. In addition, they often organize or join certain MSN /QQ online groups which provide another method to share resources and information. Fengli, a 30 year-old new mom who works as an editor at Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press shared the list of items she usually purchases online: early education books as well as other books she enjoys, snacks, toys, a baby seat & desk, diapers, imported milk powders, and other early education tools. Many moms confessed buying clothes and cosmetics for themselves on Taobao.com as they spend more time on their computers.

Aiyingshi.com was frequently mentioned by new Shanghai moms; it is a comprehensive online store selling baby items ranging from toys, formula, food, clothing and accessories.

One Chinese mom says,

“My baby is growing fast and quickly loses interest in his old toys. He has already outgrown his baby bed and now his baby seat too. I have to keep buying new items for him even though I think it’s wasteful and bad for the environment. China lacks second hand websites or markets for baby items, so it is inevitable for us to buy new things”.

Yihaodian.com is where moms go for snacks and imported food. Most expressed contentment with their “buy 100rmb, get free door-to-door delivery service” policy. Sometimes they can even get a better discount than they can shopping at supermarkets. Dangdang.com is another popular site with a wide variety of books to meet the mother’s needs.

Online shopping has certainly made preparing for a baby more convenient and sometimes it’s even cheaper. For these reasons new parents will buy more and more products online. Without a price incentive to create a market for used baby products or disincentive for buying new off the internet, sustainability is taking a back seat. With this increase in online shopping habits during the Zuo Yuezi period, we will be tracking whether or not the recycling habits of new mothers is increasing as well.

Can new mothers be the catalyst for actual sustainable change in China? Time will tell.