When Kate Casey was pregnant with her first child and balancing a demanding role, she visited the warehouse of one of the major ‘big box’ baby retailers.
It was, in a word, overwhelming.
“Where do I even begin? There’s so many options. What are these products?” Casey tells SmartCompany Plus, of the avalanche of panicked thoughts that ran through her mind.
To make matters worse, “no one helped me”.
Casey, co-founder of baby e-commerce brand The Memo, says she eventually turned to a friend and new mum to guide her through the process, who shared a checklist of the essential items she herself needed during pregnancy, and name-checked the less-useful stuff she never ended up using.
“The Memo was founded because [to me], there was a clear identifiable gap in the market,” Casey said; a gap for a marketplace of stylish and practical items for new mothers and babies to fill.
Since the company launched in October 2019, it’s seen rapid and significant growth, including 126% revenue growth from October 2021 to April this year alone, compared with the previous six-month period.
Now based in Cheltenham in Sydney’s northern suburbs, less than three years after launching the company employs 35 people and has expanded its product range from 400 to 2000.
Co-founders of The Memo Kate Casey and Phoebe Simmonds shared their journey with SmartCompany Plus and pinpointed the key business decisions they believe have helped them achieve strong and sustainable growth from day one.
The baby industry in Australia is “huge business,” The Memo co-founder Phoebe Simmonds tells SmartCompany Plus.
But as a consequence of Australia’s isolation from other major markets, the landscape is largely ruled by ‘big box stores’ with massive warehouses and much smaller “mum and pop” independent brands.
“There’s the big guys,” Simmonds explains. And then there’s a ton of smaller independent brands that often consist of a sole trader or a few shopfronts.
Simmonds doesn’t want to knock it, but she says there’s also “a lot of whimsy and cuteness and boho” in the industry. These kinds of brands have “less emphasis on practicality”.
When developing The Memo, which is entirely direct-to-consumer via thememo.com.au, Casey and Simmonds leaned heavily on their shared experiences working in Australia’s high-end beauty sector — and strive to “actually [think] about what the customer needs”.
The Memo marketing images, targeted towards new mums. Source: supplied.
Casey previously served as a buyer for David Jones and Myer, as well as several years as Brand Manager for Mecca, while Simmonds has equivalent experience in the premium beauty space, with stints at Mecca and Nude Skincare, and several years as the Marketing Director at Benefit.
Simmonds is also a serial founder, with another business, The Blow, a blow dry bar with spaces across Melbourne and Sydney.
The homegrown success of local beauty players has been in ‘curation’, Simmonds and Casey explain, along with extending an elevated customer experience to the online world.
So when setting out to build The Memo, the pair drew on this blueprint for success, with a focus on curation, quality, and a philosophy of offering “everything that she needs, and nothing that they don’t,” Simmonds says.
“I thought it was really important … that we were creating a place where parents could come and feel good,” amid the overwhelming hum of parenting advice, she says.
This is all wrapped up in a highly considered digital customer experience, which Casey and Simmonds are still growing, but includes checklists, educational content and personal stories from the community via a blog, a loyalty program and a newly-launched gift registry.
Casey and Simmonds agree there were a few early decisions that have driven the business’s consistent growth.
The first was a strong brand identity that was equally aspirational and inclusive — and immediately resonated with customers.
Casey says they also made an early commitment to hire people who “believe completely in the brand and the brand experience that we’re trying to achieve”.
The second was a keen awareness of the gaps in the co-founders’ skillset.
“Kate and I very early on, really were able to identify and articulate our weaknesses … that she and I both had,” Simmonds explains.
“I can do the marketing. Kate can do the buying and operations. But there’s so much to running a business [where we] don’t have the skills or expertise.”
As soon as it was financially viable, the business brought on “leaders” to drive business functions in lieu of more junior hires.
The team believe this fast-tracked the maturity of the business, particularly in areas like creative directions and operations management.
The Memo products. Source: supplied.
“We were able to really fly because those functions could really be driven by the right people,” Simmonds said.
One area Casey and Simmonds do commit significant focus is in securing exclusive partnerships with ‘cult’ brands.
One such get is US-based brand Happiest Baby, which creates the ‘Snoo Smart Sleeper Bassinet’, a highly sought-after crib that mimics the sounds and sensations of the womb to lull babies back to sleep.
The pair’s experience developing strategic brand partnerships that focused on alignment, brand positioning and commercial brand terms in luxury beauty have driven these wins.
The Memo focuses on what it can offer a brand; elevated brand positioning and storytelling, connection with an incredibly loyal and engaged audience as well as a great experience with our marketing, partnership, buying and planning teams, Casey and Simmonds say.
While the pair manage the onboarding of brands it is a “complete cross-functional team effort to ensure the brand is really happy with the delivery and execution of a partnership”, they explain.
As for the impressive 100% growth in only six months?
Casey and Simmonds credit this to the launch of The Memo’s gift registry.
The business invested in bespoke tech that launched in February this year. Since then, it has experienced five times more registries created by customers each [cumulative] week.
“We believe [that] gift registry is a huge business driver for us,” Simmonds says.
Again, Casey and Simmonds see growth in this area of the business as a result of tapping into an underserved market that values premium experiences they can share with their community.
In the US, registries for baby showers are growing in popularity along with wedding registries.
In Australia registries are sometimes considered “presumptuous,” Simmonds says, but cultural attitudes are changing in-line with global trends.
Consumers are also increasingly viewing registries as practical, reducing unwanted gifts and cutting down waste.
This plan to expand the suite of “experiences” The Memo’s customers can access is set to grow further in the months ahead, with virtual consultations and different formats for communication such as audio and video.
Core to growth plans are the founder’s commitment to create value for its customers that goes beyond a one-off sale.
The Memo’s value proposition has always encompassed more than just sales, Simmonds explains.
“Our customers rely on us as that trusted voice.”
Bianca Healey is the startups and tech reporter at SmartCompany, with a particular interest in regulation, the creator economy and the growth of the Australian tech sector. You can follow her on Twitter at @biancahealey.
