CRI听力:China's new child law boosts online baby products

Nie Hui, a 37-year-old mother living in Beijing, started going online to buy children's products eight years ago.

Now she gets everything online, from daily necessities like food, to toys and clothes.

"The first time was when I saw a skirt on a United States shopping website and the price was not high. So I asked my friend in the U.S. to buy the skirt and send it to me. But we had problems in communicating because of the time difference, and I also found it hard to understand the delivery charges. Since then, I started exploring how to order with credit cards, how to look for services to transfer my packages from the U.S. to China."

The products Nie buys are mostly from foreign e-commerce websites, such as Amazon.com and drugstore.com.

Official data shows that around 30 million Chinese consumers reached for their laptops to shop overseas last year.

The value of the goods bought from foreign websites was around 15 billion dollars last year.

The new second-child policy is expected to create a surge in demand for online products, especially baby products.

Liu Nan is CEO of Mia.com, a Chinese online shopping websites featuring imported products for infants.

"On Mia, our revenue on the fourth quarter was two times compared to previous quarter last year. And this year we are aiming at three times of growth compared with last year. I observed in Beijing, the birth rate is much higher than expectations. So we are very optimistic about the future market."

Liu is a mother herself, and she says she understands why Chinese mums are looking for foreign products for their children.

"I think one reason is that Chinese mothers are so concerned about quality, but also the other reason is nowadays the Chinese young mums are learning the western way to raise their baby, so they actually need western products to support their raising philosophy."

Research institute Analyst predicts that about 18 million babies will be born in China this year, nearly 1.5 million more than last year.

Analyst expects that the new two-child policy will lead to a steady growth in the number of newborns and a corresponding boost for the e-commerce sector.

Analyst researcher Cao Peikun.

"In fact, the macro environment for e-commerce development is clear. The trend for consumption is upward and government's effort to increase consumption's percentage in GDP, and the growth of newborn babies, this is all good news (to the e-commerce development)."