As a vice president in Silicon Valley in 2014, Li Gong, Ph.D., was working late nights and drinking a lot of coffee. He searched for a healthier, functional alternative to coffee, but found US tea to be low quality, with very few certified organic options. This inspired him to research the benefits of drinking different types of tea. He continued his exploration by traveling to organic green tea farms in Japan and eastern China. After drinking organic matcha from a farm in Uji, Japan, he was amazed at how great it made him feel. He partnered with the farm, and Encha was founded.
Encha strives to deliver pure organic matcha powder, with quality at the company’s core. Dr. Gong wants to show people that organic living is affordable and enjoyable by enlivening people’s days with the benefits of matcha. In contrast to tea bags, which use tea crumbs to infuse water, matcha powder is created from grinding full tea leaves, making it rich with antioxidants. Containing both theanine and caffeine, matcha creates a calm but energized mental state. One Encha customer said, “I am so glad I switched to Encha, whose latte-grade matcha is already smooth enough to be enjoyed by just adding water! To me, I can’t taste any bitterness. Just a hint of sweetness and tea aroma and a ton of good stuff that clears my mind and keeps me focused for hours!”
As Dr. Gong’s matcha business grew in popularity, he became extremely busy with supporting the matcha farm on top of being a parent. He didn’t have time to search for new ways to streamline operations.
He was already selling Encha on Amazon when he discovered that he could fulfill his website’s orders using the same inventory with Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF). With competitive rates, Dr. Gong saw value in how easy it is to transfer all of his Encha.com fulfillment to MCF. Through the single inventory source, the Amazon fulfillment team picks, packs, and ships Encha’s products to customers with Prime-like speeds.
Dr. Gong now uses MCF to manage his fulfillment for single, wholesale, and subscription orders. He’s able to effectively process his subscription orders through the ReCharge app for Shopify. Starting with a simple setup, this integration automatically submits his subscription orders to be fulfilled through MCF. He saves 2-3 hours per day by controlling his subscriptions and recurring payments all in one place, while also providing a single, easy Shopify check out experience for his customers.
MCF’s reliable delivery and simplified order processing are crucial to maintaining Dr. Gong’s subscriptions. And customers are noticing Encha’s optimized shipping speeds. After receiving their subscription, one customer wrote, “Just wanted to let you know how excited I was to receive my Encha on time...Please, I implore you to continue that process. Thank you Encha Team for making my matcha experience even better. You are indeed the BEST!”
Now Dr. Gong is excited to return back to focusing on matcha, the reason he started Encha. With the time freed up by MCF, he’s been able to start new projects, like a packaging redesign for bulk orders. He’s looking forward to spending more time on product improvement and customer engagement.
“Using MCF has allowed me to focus on quality, which is most important. It has been a huge time savings for me, as a team of one. I know that I can scale and grow Encha without having to worry about fulfillment,” Dr. Gong said.
