We started this business close to 9months ago and along the way we had manage to gather a steady string of supporters and regulars.
2nd June 2010 marked another milestone for us when we were featured on the local newspaper. Here is the article in full :
BRUNEI’S first online motherhood and breastfeeding speciality store is about to turn one year old, and is now looking to partner with the Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha (RIPAS) Hospital to carry the online store’s products.
Dot Dot’s Little Shop is also looking to create a Breastfeeding Support Group in the future to help break the social ice on the subject and give much needed advice to mothers in the breastfeeding stage.
“We want to partner with Ripas Hospital to make breastfeeding products available to mothers,” said Maureen Tan, creator and owner of the online business, but no discussions have taken place yet, as the online store is still very young.
“We started out in September, 2009 and have been going … ever since,” says Tan, who added that her reason for opening such a specialised business was mostly due to her own experiences as a breasfeeding mother, adding that there was a lack of adequate facilities for breastfeeding in public areas as well as a lack of proper changing areas for babies in the capital.
“I find that a lot of the paraphanelia for breastfeeding mothers is very limited (in Brunei), for example nursing covers (which are) covers you can put over yourself and breastfeed your baby discreetly anywhere,” Tan said, adding that what was available in Brunei was often very expensive. “I hope that by providing these products and services, it will encourage mothers to breastfeed for longer.”
Although many of their products are outsourced from Australia, England, Singapore, Canada and New Zealand, Tan says there are no concrete plans to go beyond the region. “It will be more about the regional (business),” she said, adding that she has been speaking to an investor in Limbang, Malaysia, who considered her business an “untapped market”.
The types of products being brought in are dependent on the company’s operating budget, but Tan said that the pricing for the products on Dot Dot’s Little Shop are very afforadable, even when compared to other regions in Asia where the products are sold locally in stores. “Being online, it lowers the overhead costs (considerably), which means I can price my products to be more afforable to mothers.
On the low startup costs, she said, “Our own capital is our worst enemy,” because they had a limited startup budget to work with. The site also provides online support to its customers who would like to share their experiences and get advice from other mothers.”
Dot Dot’s Little Shop advertises through a number of channels including online social networks such as Facebook, and Tan says that she finds word of mouth is a strong means to spreading the word about her business. The online business also partners with local clinics and Jerudong Park Medical Center (JMPC) to advertise their products.
The more popular products on the website, she said, are the cloth diapers, nursing covers and “Hot Milk”, a maternity lingerie range from New Zealand. “The cloth diapers are a modern version of the traditional muslin diapers, and they are reusable so you can wash them and with proper care they can last up to three or four years so it’s a cheaper alternative,” she said of the popular product. Dot Dot’s Little Shop is also currently the only carrier in Brunei, of the ‘Hot Milk’ maternity lingerie range, which Tan says has very competitive pricing even with shipping costs added on.
According to Tan, seventy per cent of her customer base is from Brunei, while the remaining thirty per cent is divided between Malaysia and Singapore. She revealed that many customers from Singapore preferred to buy maternity products from her online store as they were cheaper even compared to the local store in Singapore. Tan also noted that a general lack of availability for many of the products like the nursing covers, led her to add them to her product range.
When asked how she managed to maintain such low comparative pricing for her products, which she admits are generally quite expensive when bought individually in store, Tan said that being an online business helped a lot but the husband and wife team did survey the local Brunei market to help ensure that they had the lowest pricing possible while still being able to cover their overhead margin. She added that the business concept along with the company’s “green” certification from an online certifying body, came second to the support and network of information it was able to provide. “It’s not so much about the selling of the product but more about the benefits that (the customer gets).”
The Brunei Times