When Ixchel Anaya became pregnant at age 22, little did she know that with the arrival of her baby, a business idea that would go global would also be born.
It was 2009 and the young woman was studying interior design when she had her first child.
Disposable diapers caused terrible rashes on the baby, so she decided to try reusable washable diapers.
He lived in the Mexican city of Irapuato, about 300 kilometers northwest of Mexico City.
And although I had plenty of options to buy reusable diapers online, from sites in Europe and the US, I was disappointed that I couldn’t find any good homemade ones.
That’s why she decided to start her own design with the help of her grandmother.
She created diapers in various sizes and fabrics until she arrived at a design that made her happy.
Her friends who also had babies were amazed by Ixchel’s designs, so the young woman began making more and more to sell.
Looking back, Ixchel says she was delighted with her money-making business.
“Since I was a little girl I wanted to have a business. I sold everything you could imagine, I even sold the candy from piñatas,” she says.
Ixchel soon realized the sales potential of homemade diapers, so together with her husband she started Ecopipo.
The name is a combination of “eco,” for “ecological,” and “pipo,” the name of the teddy bear that has been passed down through the generations in his family.
Today the company has annual sales of US$1.3 million and exports to countries around the world.
Delicate stitching
On a Monday morning at the Ecopipo factory in Irapuato, Ixchel walks around talking to some of her 25 employees.
Seamstresses work skillfully with shiny fabrics, while a young girl cuts pink Velcro patches.
Everything seems to be going well, but Ixchel admits that there are plenty of obstacles in the way, starting with a constant struggle to train the seamstresses properly.
Mexico has a large textile industry, but these small Ecopipo diapers require a more delicate type of sewing than many workers in the state of Guanajuato have mastered.
Ixchel’s father had to literally go knocking on doors in 2009 until he found Mrs. “Yolis,” María Yolanda Benítez.
She is a seamstress who “makes the things in my head a reality,” says the businesswoman.
The female employees who arrived later were slowly trained until they were able to do the job.
Online strategy
Once commercial-scale production was underway, the next challenge for Ixchel was reaching customers without having to open a physical store everywhere.
The answer was e-commerce, so she quickly launched a website, ecopipo.com, and used social media to promote the brand.
Within a year, she was already receiving orders from abroad: “I was getting orders from Canada, which was great. You can reach anywhere with the internet,” says Ixchel.
“The wonderful thing about social media and the web is that there are no limits, and it’s low cost compared to other forms of advertising, or opening an office in another country,” he says.
Today Ecopipo still makes 90% of its sales through its website, while 20% of the product is exported.
Now, she has the help of an outside agency that places her ads on Google and manages her busy social media accounts.
It exports to countries such as Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium, Germany, Peru, Ecuador and Argentina.
The diapers have a waterproof polyurethane outer layer, a soft polyester inner layer, and absorbent fibers made from bamboo.
There is a wide range of colors and designs that are fully washable.
Although Ecopipo may seem expensive at first – each one costs around US$18 and up to 20 are needed during a baby’s growth – Ixchel says this is more cost-effective than disposable diapers.
And it’s a much more environmentally friendly option.
During the first few months of development, a baby needs about 6,000 disposable diapers before becoming toilet trained.
Ecopipo has diversified in recent years to also sell baby wipes, bibs and other accessories.
Ixchel, who now has four children, surfs the internet for trends and inspiration to create new colors and patterns for diapers.
“At the end of the day, diapers are like clothes, a fashion thing,” she says.
While the seamstresses are busy sewing diapers on their machines, Ixchel is thinking big these days.
“I want Ecopipo to be in every country where there are babies,” dreams the young entrepreneur.
Source: diarioecologia.com
