When she gave birth to her daughter in 2018, Philly mom Bo Zhao felt like she was “entering this whole different plane of existence.”
As a new parent, she experienced all at the same time the love for her daughter, and the worries about whether she was caring for her correctly, the excitement of her baby’s every new move, and the fear that she might get hurt. And the exhaustion of sleep deprivation made everything seem even more overwhelming.
“I didn’t realize just how hard being a new mom is,” Zhao says. “Even if you have financial support, if you have friends and family support—it is incredibly difficult.”
Wrapped up in the responsibility of caring for a new tiny human is this truth: Babies need a lot of stuff. Cribs and bouncers; bottles and breast pumps; car seats and carriers; outlet covers and cabinet latches; soon-to-be-outgrown clothes and shoes… and so much more. Zhao found she was buying tons of new baby gear every month—and struggling to know whether it was the right gear, or even necessary at all.
“You’re just unsure about everything,” Zhao says. “Like, do I really need this? Do I not? You know, things are expensive and things are at different price points and you don’t know if the more expensive thing is worth it.”
A former materials engineer who had moved to Philly for graduate school a few years back, Zhao was used to conducting research to find the answers she needs. But in various articles and new parenting groups on Facebook, she found a whole lot of conflicting advice on what she actually needed. Plus, for any one item, there are seemingly infinite different models and brands—and Zhao found it hard to determine what would work for her baby (what if a stroller bought didn’t have enough shock absorbers for bouncy Philly streets?) until she was using the products.
“You’re just unsure about everything,” Zhao says. “Like, do I really need this? Do I not? You know, things are expensive and things are at different price points and you don’t know if the more expensive thing is worth it.”
On average, American middle-income families spend between $12,000 to $13,000 on their baby’s first year of life. In Northeastern cities, like Philly, that number is often much higher. Zhao found that her daughter only used many items—like clothing, toys and bassinets—for a few months before outgrowing them, leaving her to decide whether or not to try to donate the item or let it waste in a landfill.
“I thought, I wish there was some sort of service where I could just try things out and use them for as long as I actually needed them,” Zhao says.
So she decided to create it herself and started Baby Gear Group, which allows parents to sign up for a monthly membership to rent infant and toddler gear ranging from big items like strollers and cribs to smaller staples like toys and sleepwear. Going into its second year, the business is looking to grow its membership, with eyes on eventually expanding beyond Philly and into its suburbs.
How the Baby Gear Group membership model works
Though the idea for the business came to Zhao in the months after her daughter was born, she didn’t officially launch Baby Gear Group until November, 2020. She spent time developing the idea, talking to other new moms to see if it would be something they would be interested in.
“It seemed to be a very common problem that a lot of people had,” Zhao says. “The response that I was getting was overwhelmingly, oh my gosh, like, I wish I had something like that too.”
Those conversations helped her refine the logistics and business model. She found that parents favored a delivery service where an item would show up at their door and then “magically disappear” when they didn’t need it anymore. This spurred her to create a membership model. For a monthly fee, parents get a certain amount of gear delivered to them. The business offers three different membership plans—the mini, the basic and the more—ranging in price from $49 to $199 per month.
Baby Gear Group items are separated into regular, premium and premium plus categories. Regular items include small products like baby slings, toys or carriers, while premium and premium plus items encompass larger, durable baby goods like strollers and bassinets. Under the mini plan, parents get five items and one premium item; the basic plan offers 10 items and three premium items; and the more plan offers 15 total items including five premium or premium plus items.
On average, American middle-income families spend between $12,000 to $13,000 on their baby’s first year of life. In Northeastern cities, like Philly, that number is often much higher.
To encourage parents to opt for renting gear over buying, Baby Gear Group has a no-over paying guarantee. At the end of a membership, Zhao adds up the cost of all the items parents used during that time. If membership fees exceed 50 percent of the retail price of those items, she refunds the difference. That way, parents know they will save 50 percent on any items if they rent through Baby Gear Group versus buying in a store.
Parents can elect to get a mix of new or pre-used items based on availability or they can select to get all new items if they prefer. Parents who elect for all new items pay a 50 percent increase to their monthly membership fee.
If parents want to swap one item for another or if their baby outgrows a product, they simply contact Zhao through email or text and she arranges to either pick it up or have it shipped back. The number of times parents can swap items or schedule pickups are limited by their subscription plans, but parents are able to keep items as long as their babies are using them.
If a parent loves a product, they’re also able to purchase it from Zhao so that they can keep it for their current or future children. In between users, all of the items are sanitized per the manufacturer’s instructions using baby-friendly cleaning products. Zhao says baby gear is perfectly made for re-using because much of it is durable and easy to clean, since babies can be messy.
In addition to saving parents money, Zhao hopes that her business can reduce the amount of waste parents create when they buy brand new baby items that are destined for the landfill in just a couple months or years.
The power of word of mouth
It can be a challenge to hang onto that gear for reuse; small apartments in the city often don’t have a lot of room for storage. Zhao said she found that renting a storage unit for her daughter’s items to save for a future kid would have cost her more money than simply buying new items. She thought about trying to buy used and resell the items on sites like Facebook Marketplace, but it felt like a full time job on its own.
“There’s 20 people responding in the first five minutes. You have to be super [tuned-in] 24-7, and who has the time to do that?” Zhao says.
In addition to saving parents money, Zhao hopes that her business can reduce the amount of waste parents create when they buy brand new baby items that are destined for the landfill in just a couple months or years.
Zhao has funded all of the costs of starting the business herself, including purchasing the gear. She buys many of the items on Amazon or Target, basically “the same way any other new mom would purchase it,” she says. She also buys from parents—folks who have gently-used items purchased in the last two years can submit them to Baby Gear Group’s library by emailing Zhao photos of the items and proof of purchase. If accepted, she offers parents membership credits that they can use themselves or give to a friend.
So far, Baby Gear Group has amassed just over 100 members. Many of the members have found out about the business through word of mouth. The baby and new parenting Facebook groups where Zhao used to look for advice on products to buy are now where she advertises her business. She’s also connected with several local doulas she’s friends with to help get the word out to their clients.
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“It’s all just sort of very organic, right now,” Zhao says. “I do try to share it with other people who are in the same new mom space.”
The word-of-mouth approach was enough to get the attention of Philadelphia Family Magazine, which named Baby Gear Group the “Best Baby Gear Rental” service in their 2021 LOVE Awards.
While the business is not yet profitable, Zhao made Baby Gear Group her full time job in January of 2020. She hopes to expand into other parts of the city and the suburbs this year and eventually have a staff to support the business as it grows. Right now, most of the business’s members are located in Center City, South Philly and Fishtown.
“It’s a labor of love at this point,” she says. “This is the thing that I feel so passionately about.”
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Header photo: Bo Zhao, founder of Baby Gear Group