How This Mother of 2 set up a leading e-commerce brand The Mom Store starting from one bedroom in her apartment

Surbhi Bhatia, Founder, The Mom Store

When Surbhi was expecting her first child in 2017, she struggled to find good quality maternity wear for work and occasions. She also noticed that the pregnant woman as a consumer was completely ignored and no brands existed to address her concerns. Taking inspiration from her personal journey, she started The Mom Store in 2018. She started with just 3 products from one bedroom of her flat in Bengaluru, moonlighting as an entrepreneur, hoping to create a brand that focused on moms as a consumer segment and understood their concerns that would allow them to celebrate their motherhood journey.

One of the initial challenges was navigating the ecommerce business and build a brand from scratch- something she learnt on the job. In the initial days of The Mom Store- Surbhi was a one woman company- she mad the website, uploaded the products, handled customer care, packed orders, dispatched them and managed the social media all by herself. Like most women who are young mothers, she was not encouraged to leave her cushy corporate job and turn to entrepreneurship especially as her elder daughter was just 1 year old when she began. But she ignored the naysayers and crossed all the hurdles to keep her brand growing.

As the startup entered a growth trajectory in 2019, and the brand was just getting started, COVID hit in early 2020. Suddenly, everything that she had built so far came to a standstill. But she persevered. She decided to continue operations and fulfil as many orders as was possible in the given situation. Even during COVID she would travel to her warehouse all alone to ship orders across the country all alone as her team could not join her in the lockdown. This led to a brand discovery resulting in customer trust in the brand and the startup grew 2X in 2020 itself. "It wasn't easy", she says, adding "I just knew I had to keep going. A lot of parents with babies born in 2020 had never envisaged such an extended lockdown owing to the pandemic and did not have baby essentials they needed. We decided to rise up to the occasion and help the parents of newborns born in the COVID months."

In the last two years The Mom Store has grown 10 times since its launch, and along with its sale on The Mom Store website, it has expanded its presence across all marketplaces like Amazon, Myntra, Nykaa, Firstcry, TATACliq, Ajio, Jaypore to name a few. The brand is also available in retail through its concept store in Bengaluru and Mothercare stores all over India. The Mom Store fulfils its orders through its tech enabled E-com facility in Bangalore.

Today The Mom Store is a one-stop-solution for Maternity, Baby and Kidswear. The brand is famous for maternity wear that includes Maternity tops, Leggings, Maternity denims, Dresses, and Baby Shower Gowns, which can pass off as casual as well as event wear. It also offers maternity lingerie and loungewear that are feeding friendly as well as breastfeeding pillows with a support belt. Whereas, apart from Maternity Fashion their bestseller collection boasts of Kids Casuals, Kids Ethnic Wear, Bedding Set, Baby Carriers, Baby Bedding, Baby Swaddling, New-Born Gifting and Twinning Categories.

Today Bootstrapped startup The Mom Store has become a leading maternity brand in the last three years occupying a white space and capturing a latent demand in the market with its offerings. The brand is growing at a CAGR 30% YOY and already has a customer base of over 2,00,000+ women. The Mom Store is poised to go international this year and expand its offerings in the US and EU markets.

Surbhi has recently delivered her second baby while driving the brand independently setting an example for the society which time and again questions and pressurizes young mothers. When asked how she manages it all, Surbhi says she successfully believes in planning the schedule ahead for her kids. Her four months old baby also accompanies her to the office while she juggles between motherhood and work.

Surbhi reiterates, "I am truly living The Mom Store journey in my personal life as well. So, in essence, my actions and what I do stands for the modern woman of today, who can truly have it all and doesn't need to compromise personal or professional for her growth as an individual,"

A woman with multiple talents, Surbhi never fails to inspire her audience by modelling for the brand. Today The Mom Store's Instagram has a massive reach of more than Two Lakh followers. The brand also makes a lot of educational and awareness related content related to moms with experts, which many people share and save for future reference as the idea is not just about the sale of products. She reiterates that she is building the brand to allow women to "Celebrate Their Motherhood Journey" as The Mom Store continues working on products and collections that simplifies a mother's life and makes her feel beautiful and confident.