The Launch of Amazing Grace Elephant Company
Robert L. Green (pictured), a journalist for the Hong Kong bureau of NBC News from 1969 to 1978, established and registered the Company as a sole proprietorship in 1973 under the name Green Enterprises, trading as Amazing Grace Elephant Company. He and his wife, Grace Man Wah Green, a travel consultant for American Express, ran the business as a part-time undertaking for the first five years. The company was later incorporated with Bob and Grace (the Amazing) as the majority shareholders. Charles Monat, a longtime friend and life insurance executive, took a minority share in 2000 and became a director in 2001. Ms. [Cindy] Chau Lai Yi (Pictured) became a minority shareholder in 2011.
Amazing Grace Elephant Company has been retailing Asian ethnic handicrafts, gifts, garments, accessories, jewelry and home furnishings at prime locations in Hong Kong for 40 years including Harbour City, Star House, The Excelsior Hotel, The Landmark, Cityplaza, New Town Plaza and other locations. The Company has also operated stores in the China Fleet Club in Hong Kong and Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines at the invitation of the U.S. Navy. Previously, AGEC printed and distributed an average of 300,000, 36-page full color mail order catalogs yearly in the U.S. The company established amazinggracehk.com in 2000 — an e-commerce website.
Amazing International Appeal
AGEC’s extensive product and price range make the stores and website attractive and affordable to a broad range of customers from both Hong Kong and abroad. AGEC takes pride in its broad-based appeal as seen in the wide range of customers, not specific to age, sex, nationality, or spending power. The Company counts local and visiting Chinese from teenagers to grandmothers along with Hong Kong expatriates, visiting businessmen, and tourists from all over among its best customers and enjoys a high degree of customer satisfaction and loyalty. The company has received highly favorable endorsements from Fodor’s Southeast Asian Guide, San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Dow Jones News Service, Chicago Tribune, Hong Kong Shopping Guide to Home Decorating, and others.
Specialty Products & Signature Style
Carefully created displays, distinctive store decoration, wide-ranging product mix, and descriptive product labeling have all contributed to Amazing Grace’s success and status as a speciality or niche retailer with a signature style of operation. We sat down AGEC’s President, Robert Green, to share his experiences and the lessons he’s learned in the transition from international brick and mortar store to an online retailer:
How did you get started with your online business?
Our online business was partly a response to the many American customers visiting our mall and airport stores here in Hong Kong who asked if we had stores in the U.S. We were also encouraged by the response to stories about Amazing Grace by travel writers, especially those for Fodor’s Guide and the San Francisco Examiner.
We’ve been traveling the back roads of Asia since the early 1970s looking for handicraft products, doing our own sourcing without going through middlemen. The products provided the inspiration. I always felt Amazing Grace was like an author looking for a publisher because our merchandise was interesting and told a story, crafts that talked about the artisans who made them — wood carvers, silversmiths, sewers and stitchers, and how and where we found them. We loved it when people came into our stores and asked “Who’s the buyer?” because it made us feel like we were storytellers.
Why did you choose Miva Merchant as your ecommerce platform?
The choice of Miva Merchant was that of the design team we chose to build our website. I liked the work I saw in their portfolio and was attracted by the ease with which I could handle Miva’s admin functions, especially considering I was a right brain person with hardly any technical skills but still responsible for all the photography, writing, site maintenance, etc.
What is your favorite feature that you’ve built into your online store?
Given the variety of our products, it was a struggle to come up with a uniting theme that somehow expressed why we were special. Using large, colorful, rotating sliders on the home page displaying our major product categories helped get that message across and is what you might call my favorite feature.
What lessons have you learned as a result of setting up your ecommerce business?
Hey, it’s really tough getting it right. As it’s said, if you’re not a brand, you’re just a commodity competing only on price. Increasingly we came to realize that we had to distinguish ourselves through product selection, design and quality which put a high premium on discovering new products, designers and artisans.
Tell us something unique about your business.
The product line I’d single out is our signature series of Suzie Wong tees, which have been really popular in our airport stores for years. I’d also draw attention to the charity we set up several years ago after seeing how tough things were for kids in rural areas in China where we went to source products. Up to now, China Schools Foundation, has renovated six schools in two provinces and provided them with sports equipment, teaching materials, stationery supplies, and playground equipment. CSF has also produced model lesson teaching videos for distribution to rural schools and created prototype installations to help set up libraries and build greenhouses.
In your opinion, what are the keys to success when operating an online store?
Incentive is first, like having to send two kids to college. Knowing Google’s secrets is probably next followed by having the best design, marketing and SEO help you can afford.
What do you like most about using Miva Merchant?
Getting fast technical support regardless of the time, especially considering we are on the other side of the world with a twelve hour time difference from the U.S., working when everyone but Miva support staff is sleeping.
How is your online store doing today?
Since 2000, our online presence has been a significant factor in our success. We’re celebrating our fortieth anniversary this year and counting on the site redesign Miva Merchant recently completed to make it a great one.
