We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Meng Li. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Meng below.

Meng, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

There are several challenges to profitability for the ecommerce industry, but I think the rising costs of user acquisition is the biggest driver of profitability concerns. Advertising costs on online platforms like Meta and Google have gotten more expensive over the past few years. With the changes that Apple has made to iOS, it’s gotten more challenging to target the right potential customers. On top of that, it’s an election year, which makes digital advertising costs even more expensive, because of the extra amount of spend that political campaigns are spending.

For ecommerce businesses, because there isn’t regular ‘foot traffic’ like you would find in a brick & mortar store or a marketplace website like Amazon, where customers could stumble upon your products, revenue comes from driving traffic to your website and getting people to make a purchase. The most scalable and efficient way of doing that is through online ads. As costs get more and more expensive, it reduces the profitability. And a brand does not have other scalable ways of driving traffic to their website, it makes business growth difficult to maintain.

Meng, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My professional background is in brand and growth marketing in the Consumer Goods industry. So developing and marketing physical products is something that I’m very passionate about. After I had my second child, I was on the market for a new diaper bag, and was very frustrated by the lack of quality and well-designed options. My choices were either low cost and low quality bags that would fall apart after a few months, or higher quality but much more expensive bags that were more of a fashion statement and less of a functional bag I could use to carry my kids’ stuff. I wanted a well constructed bag made from high quality materials, comfortable to wear, and thoughtfully designed based on how parents actually need to use the bag. I couldn’t find anything that matched my perfect version of a diaper bag, so I decided to make it myself!

I work with one of the top softgoods manufacturers in the world and we only use top-of-the-line materials to make our products. We also go through rigorous consumer testing and feedback, so we are confident in the design and quality of our products. Every feature is designed with intention, all with the end goal of making the lives of parents a little bit easier.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

I don’t have any prior experience in softgoods product development or manufacturing, so I had to learn everything along the way (which included making a lot of mistakes!) There was a lot of cold calling, a lot of rejections and a lot of trial and error when it came to finding the right design and manufacturing partners. The supply chain I started out with is completely different from where I am now.

The biggest lessons I’ve learned along the way are: 1. Don’t rush the development process. Product development takes a long time and it’s better to get the product right than moving quickly and putting something out that isn’t exactly what you envisioned. 2. Stand your ground and don’t compromise when it comes to design and development. You know your business and customers better than anyone else and it’s ultimately your brand, so don’t settle for something that you are not happy with.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The biggest pivot I’ve made in my career so far has been making the leap from a relatively cushy corporate job to the completely foreign world of entrepreneurship. I had always wanted to make my own products and build my own brand, and I was hitting a point in life where it felt like it was now or never. So I spent about 8 months laying the groundwork to start my own business and eventually made the leap from a stable career to something totally unknown.

Despite the ups and downs, it’s been an incredibly rewarding experience that has taught me so much about business and marketing that I could have never learned had I stayed in my corporate job. Being an entrepreneur has also given me the confidence to pursue challenging projects because I know I can still learn new skills and do hard things.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.meethuhu.com
• Instagram: @meet_huhu
• Facebook: @meet_huhu

Image Credits

Diane Viladsen Photography, Oni Productions