Babydash: 10 Years & Beyond
Welcome back to another issue of Head’s Up! Head’s Up had a chat with Babydash’s CEO and Founder, Lavinie Thiruchelvam on the journey the integrated digital baby store has had for the past 10 years and what the future holds for Babydash.
But just before you go on to the interview with Lavinie, MaGIC’s pitching session is back and it’s time for a the monthly Grill or Chill. The session is set to take place on June 25, and for those who are keen, do grab your slot to listen to this month’s selected startup & entrepreneurs pitch to solve a real problem!
Till our next issue, stay safe and stay healthy!
Babydash: 10 Years & Beyond
Identifying a clear gap in the market where at that time, no one was selling diapers and milk online, Lavinie Thiruchelvam formed Babydash, an integrated digital baby store in 2011.
In order to address the gaps, Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Lavinie was committed to making the basic daily necessities made available online and then throughout the years, to build the product offering and present all the categories, thus creating a complete one stop shop for everything under the sun for the Mom & Baby industry.
“These are the basic daily necessities that mums run out of all the time and it is crucial to solve the painful problem of mums having to run out to the stores to buy all these heavy goods,” Lavinie says.
Since its inception, reception from parents has been welcoming. With Babydash offering a range of brands that are at times difficult to find for parents and coupled with a speedy delivery and the sound advices that comes with their services, Lavinie says the platform has made it easier for many parents.
The platform’s growth was also a testament to the success it was enjoying. In its first-round of funding in 2017, Babydash attracted 131 investors in a fully subscribed campaign raising RM2 Million. As of recent back in May, Lavinie announced that the company is set to raise further funds via equity crowdfunding platform, pitchIN with a target of RM1 Million.
Via the latest round, small retail investors can be part of the Babydash growing company with only RM1,200/block of investment.
The funding will also be used to focus on building their data analytics capabilities, digital marketing, team expansion and working capital needs.
And through direct partnerships with brands and a supply chain ownership, Babydash has built a successful business that has since expanded into Singapore in late 2019.
“Overall, Babydash has had very healthy year-on-year growth and we have also been adding on more brands and items in our quest to have every single item for mums and babies. We have over 8,000 SKUs now and we should reach 10,000 in the next 12 months.”
While she has enjoyed a fair number of success through Babydash, Lavinie acknowledges that it was not an easy path to be on.
“The initial challenges many years ago were so different to the challenges we face today. In 2011, it was about convincing big name brands to come on board our platform and also about piecing our whole platform together from supply chain to technology to finding the right logistics partner, basically the whole workings and building of an e-commerce platform.
“Today our challenges are about being very analytical and deep diving into data analytics and tons of numbers to scale our e-commerce business profitably. Covid-19 has accelerated the growth of e-commerce but it also has its fair share of issues where our supply chain and imports have had huge delays. Managing the balance of Covid related delays has no doubt been tough,” Lavinie tells Head’s Up.
The Babydash Founder is also optimistic that the platform is very well positioned as the leader in Malaysia. While there are many smaller e-commerce players in the baby market, Lavinie says most focus on certain categories and high margin items and not so much on being a one-stop center offering everything.
As for future plans, Lavinie says besides growing regionally, the platform will also be investing in their very own label of baby consumables and at present, they are at very early stages of these plans.
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