“Without Amazon, I would not have a business. I would still be in corporate America.”
Three years ago, Peipei Zhou was looking down at the first edition of her new sound book, Bao Bao Learns Chinese. This was the solution to teaching her young son, Miles, her first language of Mandarin in an engaging way. More than a year of research, testing, and development was now beautifully bound and battery-operated. Sitting in a box next to her were dozens more copies just like the one in her hand.
Zhou knew what it would take to see her book on the shelf of a traditional retailer. Before she started working in corporate social media, that’s all she did. She worked for one of the ‘big guys,’ securing shelf space for hundreds of products at stores across America.
“You need to have a big name and big marketing budget. Millions,” said Zhou. “The buyers of a national retailer won’t take meetings with a ‘mom and pop’ shop. So, getting any kind of mass placement is practically zero.”
Zhou believed her book would have mass appeal if she could just get it in the hands of kids and their parents. The book features traditional children’s songs from the United States and China in a press-and-play sound book format, giving parents the tools to teach little ones the language through music.
“It connects kids to parents, kids to grandparents, strengthening the bonds over the songs that their grandparents used to sing in their home countries,” said Zhou. This was the early language learning tool so many others like her were looking for: it was multi-generational, and it was screen-free.
With her social media background, Zhou looked into building her own website and selling directly to customers but the acquisition cost would have been $20 per customer, for a book that’s only $25. “I would either have to increase the price drastically, or I just wouldn’t have any customers,” she said.
Zhou didn’t want to waste time or money to test the segment. The lowest risk option, she said, was Amazon. In addition to being affordable, she valued the company’s strong customer base and tools like Fulfillment by Amazon, where her books would get boxed and shipped to customers for her. It was divide and conquer, she said. Zhou leaned into developing her books and digital advertising; Amazon did the rest.
“Amazon is sort of a one-stop shop for solopreneurs,” she said.
“They take care of getting people into the funnel and everything logistically. I don’t have to own a warehouse. I don’t have to have a team that ships or handles the extraneous logistical tasks,” said Zhou. “Amazon is great at customer service, like returns and customer support. All of that stuff that I don’t have the capacity for, Amazon can take care of it.”
“Bottom line, selling with Amazon allows me the bandwidth I need to create even more books, better books,” she said.
Since launching in 2019, Zhou’s books have taken the early childhood language education segment by storm. Bao Bao Learns Chinese is now one of three language series books she has written under the brand Baby Learns Language. In 2021, she launched Coco Learns Spanish and last year, debuted Astro Learns English. Through Baby Learns Language, Zhou employs musicians and illustrators from around the world and has built an international following, selling in multiple countries through Amazon. And, just three years after launching, Zhou quit her corporate job to pursue her book business full time.
“Amazon has done an extremely good job of providing an avenue of entrepreneurship to people who want it and making it as easy as possible,” said Zhou. “The entry into entrepreneurship with Amazon has been really, really good. And the pursuit of running my own business has been the most gratifying decision I’ve made.”
“Amazon has been my most valuable partner,” she added.
Now that Zhou has made a name for herself, she said she’s looking at launching her own website and selling to customers directly, using Buy with Prime to provide customers a seamless checkout experience with free and fast shipping. It’s in the pipeline for the next few years, along with 10 new language books, including Korean, Tagalog, French, Hindi, and Arabic.