Beauty begins with Authenticity
-A personal note to our GingerChi customers.-
GingerChi's integral brand value is balance.
From the water we splash onto our faces to the smooth, semi-precious stones we massage into our skin, beauty begins and ends with authenticity.
Many of you are already familiar with the story of how I created GingerChi as a single mom and grew it into the leading name in natural Gua Sha tools and traditional Chinese beautycare.
(If not, here's my backstory!)
What many of you may not be aware of is that, just 2 years ago, the foundation of my brand was shaken to its core.
I had to endure quite a bit of drama when our GingerChi products (and even our brand images – featuring my very own daughter!) were targeted by a nefarious, one-man scam shop operating on Amazon.
The man (or even a possible insider team) who operated the fake shop lived in the shadows, copying many others' different businesses products and images whilst selling counterfeit and subpar products to unsuspecting customers.
(We even received some returns that we quickly noticed were not our authentic product).
Eventually, thankfully, the problem was resolved.
But not before the damage had been done to my own brand and our operations had been knocked off-track.
It was a rather difficult, painful experience to say the least.
And this was before the COVID whammy that hit and is still hitting us all.
Alas, it did open my eyes to an entire world of 'Buyer Beware" issues affecting much of our technology and shopping platforms today.
Whilst small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of commerce and must invest deeply in our own technologies, taking steps to ensure our customers and suppliers are safe and transparent, some of the sprawling shopping platforms might not always have the back of those businesses – despite what their multimillion dollar national ad campaigns say.
So to further help illuminate some of these issues for researchers and journalists, I was recently interviewed by WIRED magazine and was also featured in a podcast for NPR to talk about how Amazon's leaked data almost cost me my entire business.
I'm just glad that these issues have since come to light and our business is now on its way to recovery.
But I felt it was something I needed to share with all of you. Not only to protect my brand – but to help protect you and yours.
As always, I'm happy to share my journey with all of you.
If you also run a small business, please – feel free to reach out and connect anytime.
Real beauty is when we stand strong, together.
Love to all,
Anna
