Baby-first Child Car Seats: From Exportation to Domestic Sales

Baby-first Industrial Company Limited (Baby-first),fromNingbo, China, specialized in the production of child car seats. It had been taking overseas original equipment manufacturer (OEM) orders since the early 1990s. Within a few years, the company’s annual export volume had become nearly one million units, with its major focus being on markets in Europe, the United States and Southeast Asia. With the rapid growth of the domestic car market in China, Xu Lihong, the founder of Baby-first, was considering how he could sell child car seats in China. However, due to the immature market environment and his lack of marketing experience, his first attempts did not see satisfactory results. Baby-first’s international competitors had advantages in technology, brands and economies of scale, while domestic competitors had advantages in cost and price. In this low-entry-barrier market, they were posing a substantial threat to Baby-first.