Local online children’s clothing businesses could potentially be holding up Australia’s economy, according to myAppalogues, which found over 60 percent of these businesses sell local products instead of importing from overseas.
Technology startup myAppalogues looked at more than 700 baby and children websites to compile the survey, designed to provide content for its mobile-accessible online catalogue.
According to Founder Jillian Manly, the strong market for baby products manufactured in Australia is great for both customers and the economy.
“These businesses are creating outlets for customers to purchase Australian-made baby and children clothing and products rather than them being shipped over from overseas.”
“This industry could very well be holding up Australia’s economy, as we reviewed more than 700 baby websites in our study and that only covered half of the majority of smaller businesses operating in this sector,” she added.
Manly said the myAppalogues team reviewed the websites over the past month to see what baby and kids products small business owners are creating.
“We focused our reviews on Australian companies selling to kids and mums and found about 60 percent of these sold a select number of their own branded products in particular segments,” Ms Manly says.
“The remainder were companies that held licenses to international products or were retail storefronts selling anywhere from 10 to over 100 brands of products.”
“We avoided web ‘aggregators’, department store products, and blogs so what is left is a unique set of differentiated, boutique, special and often hard to find businesses and products for babies, children and their parents.”
She also revealed that the majority of the companies in the sector are Australian made, small, dedicated businesses operating out of home.
“Just like us, many businesses were started by mums, and I’ve learnt women and mums actually start-up businesses at a faster rate than most.”
“These businesses often operated out of the home and no doubt enlisted other family members as needed for evening packing and paperwork,” she added.
The myAppalogues app is available free for all users and can be downloaded directly for iPhone/iPad through the Apple App Store and for Google Android smartphones from the Google Android App Market.