China's Online Maternal Nutrition Sales Rose 37.6% in 2025
By Quan Wenjun
4 min read
The Bottom Line#
Infant formula, at CN¥ 50.93 billion, was the largest part of China's online maternity and baby market in 2025, but the fastest change came from maternal nutrition, which grew 37.6% year on year (YoY) to CN¥ 4.13 billion. This shift from "baby first" to "mother and baby equally important" is creating new opportunities across prenatal supplements, stage-specific formulations and emerging ingredients such as Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) and protein. We believe the maternal nutrition segment offers some of the strongest growth prospects in the maternity and baby market for brands with strong scientific credentials.
Feeding: Infant Formula Remains the Category Anchor#
Infant formula was the largest single category in 2025 by a substantial margin, at CN¥ 50.93 billion (+18.1% YoY). The growth rate reflects premiumisation as parents trade up to organic and specialised formulas, along with promotional competition on the platforms and inventory restocking cycles.
Baby food contributes an additional CN¥ 7.61 billion (+12.2% YoY), driven by growing demand for complementary feeding products. Together, feeding-related categories exceed CN¥ 58.5 billion, representing approximately 26% of the total maternity and baby online market.
Care: Toiletries and Products Show Premiumisation#
Baby toiletries grew 21.0% to CN¥ 22.83 billion, faster than the broader baby products category. We believe this reflects premiumisation, as parents upgrade from basic hygiene products to gentle, natural-ingredient formulations marketed as safe for sensitive infant skin.
Baby products reached CN¥ 37.53 billion (+8.5% YoY), keeping their position as the second-largest category. Baby diapers contributed CN¥ 35.31 billion (+4.4% YoY), with modest growth that reflects the category's maturity.
Maternal care, however, fell 5.0% to CN¥ 4.0 billion, which suggests that traditional postpartum care products face competition from more targeted, ingredient-specific alternatives.
Supplements: The Fastest-Growing Segment#
Baby nutrition (CN¥ 15.62 billion, +27.5%) and maternal nutrition (CN¥ 4.13 billion, +37.6%) together reached CN¥ 19.75 billion, growing faster than the large feeding and care categories.
Calcium-iron-zinc was the largest sub-category, and maternal CoQ10 reached CN¥ 8.41 million (+2,455.1% YoY)[1], while maternal vitamins and maternal folic acid grew quickly as active-form prenatal formulations were adopted.
| Sub-Category | Sales Revenue (CN¥) | YoY Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Calcium Iron Zinc | 5.65B | +48.6% |
| DHA / Fish Oil / Algae Oil | 3.02B | +25.2% |
| Probiotics | 2.68B | +16.9% |
| Vitamins | 2.18B | +5.0% |
| Maternal Calcium Iron Zinc | 1.00B | +47.9% |
| Maternal DHA | 759.5M | -4.2% |
| Lactoferrin | 720.2M | +17.4% |
| Maternal Folic Acid | 614.7M | +69.6% |
| Maternal Vitamins | 519.8M | +392.4% |
Source: Moojing Market Intelligence
What the high-growth sub-categories have in common is that they are sold on absorption, with active folic acid, active iron and active calcium marketed at premium prices.
Travel, Home Appliances and Furniture Also Grew#
Beyond nutrition, several other categories also grew strongly. Maternity and baby travel products grew 32.0% to CN¥ 1.69 billion, which reflects growing confidence among new parents about travelling with infants. Maternity and baby home appliances grew 19.3% to CN¥ 5.69 billion, driven by specialised products such as bottle sterilisers and baby food processors.
Maternity and baby furniture reached CN¥ 21.97 billion (+19.0% YoY), helped by a broader trend toward dedicated nursery setups and safety-certified baby furniture.
Efficacy Leads Purchase Decisions for Prenatal Supplements#
Analysis of e-commerce consumer reviews shows that efficacy accounts for 54.16% of purchase decision weight for prenatal supplements, followed by ingredients (9.4%), ease of swallowing (9.23%), taste (7.75%) and odour (6.24%)[2].
On social media, calcium supplementation leads prenatal nutrition discussions with 150,179 mentions, followed by qi-and-blood replenishment (93,649) and iron supplementation (87,196). Weight management was the fourth most-discussed benefit (84,136 mentions), which suggests that Chinese mothers in 2025 combined traditional pregnancy nutrition with contemporary wellness goals.
The male share of fertility-preparation discussion on social media more than doubled in 2025, from 18.56% to 37.91%, and lycopene entered the top four pre-conception ingredients, which widens the addressable market to couples preparing for conception together.
Strategic Implications#
- Invest in bioavailability science: active-form ingredients are the main point of difference that supports premium pricing
- Build stage-specific product lines: Elevit's four-stage pregnancy range is one example of a product line segmented by stage of pregnancy, and we believe this kind of positioning suits the category
- Target the prenatal preparation market: male fertility preparation is a newly addressable segment
- Expand beyond core categories: travel, home appliances and furniture are growing categories worth considering
Download Full Report#
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This article is based on data from Moojing Market Intelligence (魔镜洞察). For methodology details and data sources, please refer to the full report.
Contact: info@moojing-global.com
[1] CoQ10 growth figure reflects a very small base; absolute market size remains nascent.
[2] Consumer decision analysis derived from e-commerce platform review data across major Chinese platforms analysed by Moojing Market Intelligence.
This content adheres to Moojing's editorial standards .
