Selecting the ideal car seat and baby stroller for your child can be difficult, especially in light of the growing expense of living. You would want the best goods with safety features for your child’s protection, and these things are not cheap.
But what if there was a scheme that would let you rent the stroller and car seat for less than RM70 a month for over five years, and you get to keep them?
MOVON Sdn Bhd, one of Malaysia’s fastest-growing homegrown businesses in the baby product rental segment, has two product categories: car seats and baby strollers. Each category includes three models and colour options.
MOVON’s rental package is reasonably priced at RM65 per month for a period of five years. For this amount, customers will receive one car seat and one baby stroller, valued at RM1,800 and RM2,000, respectively.
“Customers can currently rent our car seats and baby stroller for RM65 per month for a period of five years. We will cover the product warranty over a five-year period. Product ownership will pass to the customer after the fifth year,” said the company’s chief executive officer, Mak Wai Hoong.
MOVON, established in 2021, plans to expand significantly over the next five years.
The company has a five-year business plan (2023–2028) that calls for opening up to 100 island stores and galleries for baby products in malls all around Malaysia.
Mak, who is the company’s chief executive officer, said that the company had successfully raised RM20 million through crowdfunding, drawing many participants in support of its commercial expansion.
He said that MOVON’s ability to generate RM20 million through crowdfunding verified the company’s success and demonstrated its viability.
“This indicates how confident the market is in us. Investors see the market potential and our team’s experience, and they have faith in our team and our creative concept. We’ll keep up our hard work, keep our word, and make sure we reach our objectives in the allotted period,” he said.
This crowdfunding campaign is to support marketing costs, outlet expansion, the launch of new baby products, and the growth of the MOVON brand in Malaysia.
“We aim to have up to 100 MOVON outlets in the next five years. We need actual locations in order to provide customers with the opportunity to touch and feel our products. We already operate three, one in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, and Pavilion Bukit Jalil, Melaka, and we’ve noticed really excellent client reactions,” he said.
Mak revealed that the goal of crowdfunding is to give investors early access to profits, and, most importantly, facilitate capital growth for the initial group of investors.
According to him, the crowdfunding campaign also intends to accelerate the company’s listing process, since it plans to go public in 2026.
Accelerating Business Growth
Under the MOVON brand, the company also sells travel packs and baby wipes. Next year, it intends to expand into convenience stores and baby stores.
Furthermore, MOVON provides cleaning services for infant equipment.
Mak introduced the MOVON brand in April of this year in response to the overwhelmingly positive feedback it received regarding its product rental scheme with third party brands for smart locks and washing machines.
”Based on our experience, we have discovered that renting products is very accepted in Malaysia, particularly in the wake of the pandemic. Therefore, we made the decision to introduce our own brand, MOVON, in order to promote the baby stroller and car safety seat under our rental scheme.
“We have successfully replicated the rental model from smart locks to washing machines and now to baby products. We have recently started offering cleaning services for baby gear. Customers can come to us for cleaning services for their baby gear, regardless of the brand they are using. We offered 1,000 cleaning packages in June, and they were all gone in less than two weeks, so we have tested the market’s acceptability of this.
“From here, we see that the market potential for baby gear under the rental scheme and baby gear cleaning services is huge, and we want to expand with more stores and products,” he said.
Mak revealed that since 2022, sales of the rental scheme have been extremely high.
The company’s overall performance has climbed 62 times this year compared to two years ago since the first crowdfunding phase, and profit has increased significantly from RM387,000 (in 2021) to RM3.6 million this year.
“The data proves that capital in our hands will make an impact,” he said.
According to Mak, the company’s ability to offer cutting-edge items, products that have been certified for safety, cleaning services, and an economical rental program allowed it to effectively break into the market.
He said the company’s strollers are in great demand as, when folded, they are easier to carry than those of the brand’s rivals because their width is only 19 cm.
MOVON intends to extend its profit landscape by venturing into the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) business, where it may benefit from high repurchase rates and increased brand visibility.
Mak believes that the rental scheme industry will continue to grow in the future.
According to him, the baby goods market is expanding quickly right now, and MOVON is leading this very bright and exciting sector of the economy.
“We think the rental business model will lead to the emergence of yet another new trend in the market, even though the microeconomy may still be difficult. In addition to creating a mark and leading the market, our goals are to encourage additional SMEs to enter the rental business.
“The consumer will ultimately get the greatest benefits. They can lessen their financial load through the rental plan, which will increase their standard of living and quality of life. Families with few children will find our plan very helpful,” he said.
Moving forward, Mak expects the business model for the rental scheme for car seats to grow next year.
“For families with two to three kids, our rental scheme will be most suitable for them as they don’t have to fork out too much money at one go,” he said.
