Chinese millennial mothers are changing the face of luxury childrenswear retailing, a US$6.6 billion industry

A generation of Chinese mums has grown up with the internet, and they use it to buy clothes for their children more than they do to stock their own wardrobes

‘Mommy blogs’ and social media posts by ‘normal’ women about their kids’ fashion choices have more influence on Chinese millennials than KOLs

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Luxury childrenswear is worth US$6.6 billion a year and the China market is growing the fastest.

Published: 7:15am, 17 Sep 2019Updated: 8:23pm, 18 Sep 2019

When the Baby Dior team posted a photograph of child influencer and actress A Lalei dressed in head-to-toe cream and lace Dior on their Weibo account, its engagement shot up – as did their sales. A few weeks later, they uploaded a picture of actor couple Du Jiang and Huo Siyan’s child, Du Yuqi, in a “mini-me” outfit from their ready-to-wear collections and their follower numbers leapt up once again.

The China market has long been a focus of childrenswear brands looking to expand. The global luxury childrenswear market reached US$6.6 billion last year, up by 3.8 per cent year-on-year, according to Euromonitor. In China, its growth doubled in just 12 months.

A new report by K11’s Future Taskforce, “The Mommy Economy in China”, focuses on the retail habits of Chinese millennial mothers and should be required reading for any childrenswear brand trying to make millions in mainland China.

The report looks into how mothers born after 1980 shop for their children – and why fashion should be careful of making lazy generalisations about them. Known as the BAT generation – after China’s three e-commerce giants, Baidu, Alibaba (which owns the South China Morning Post) and Tencent – this is an age group that has grown up shopping online and is notably internet savvy.

Mother and daughter match looks from Monnalisa, a growing online trend.

Their internet savviness apparently increases after they give birth: 39 per cent of the women profiled said that they bought most of their own clothes online, but when it comes to shopping for their children, that number jumps to 44 per cent. And even those who mostly shop in bricks-and-mortar stores are still heavily influenced by social media and online comparisons.