ers increasingly seek natural products that are kind to the skin.  Engsall told Inside Retail that the company was always open to expanding overseas and is ready to make its mark in the highly competitive US market.   “We are a proud Australian family business who has always taken an entrepreneurial approach,” Engsall said.  “Our global footprint has been minimal but always open to a global expansion. Negotiation is always great when both parties have the same goal in mind. It has so far been a great journey together with Pharmapacks.” The demand for natural skincare products globally in recent years has helped The Jojoba Company make strides. “I feel that there is a trend emerging globally I would call A-Beauty – the need for clean natural and safe Australian skincare brands, and with our relationship with Pharmapacks we are starting to ride that wave.” Jojoba originated in the US and grows wild in desert areas meaning there is already a good understanding of the product in this market. Being the first skincare brand in the world to use Wadi-Wadi Jojoba, an ingredient that is harvested on the family farm in regional NSW, The Jojoba Company was uniquely positioned.  “Our unique Australian ingredient rich Wadi-Wadi variety also positions us to grow and compete with other varieties that grow and are sold in the US,” she said.  Skincare education  Engsall says consumers are much more educated on skincare now, and are acutely aware of the ingredients they want, and the ones they want to avoid. Social media has played a large part in facilitating this education.  “We did have a hard job when we first started 11 years ago to convince consumers that a natural product is as effective as a chemical one. With the benefit of our digital channels allowing us to have two-way conversations with our consumers I have noticed people understand the efficacy of natural ingredients and the results that they can achieve,” she said.   “For those people who are yet to be convinced, most just need to try a sample which we readily provide and we also have conducted some clinical trials which have shown great results using our products which we communicate to our consumers.” Thriving in a difficult year The closure of bricks-and-mortar stockists during the pandemic, particularly in Victoria, placed a strain on the business but gift and souvenir stores in Queensland thrived during that time.   “Limited trading hours has also resulted in limited working hours for our teams. We normally offer a great service to the stores we are stocked in through training, merchandising, et cetera, but this has been unable to occur which in turn has affected our sales in these stores,” Engsall said. Like most retailers, the company noticed an uplift in online sales, particularly in the second quarter, as people opted to shop from home more.  “We have also onboarded some other online stores who are stocking and selling our products and seeing an uplift during this time,” she said.  Despite the difficult times, The Jojoba Company pivoted to community-focused initiatives, donating products and samples to the residents of south coast New South Wales affected by bushfires and developing a hand sanitiser to meet high demand during the pandemic.  “We are now selling a 100ml size to our customers exclusively online. We introduced Calming Jojoba and were able to get this to market in three months appealing to those consumers who when they suffer stress notice it play out on their skin in the form of breakouts or dry, itchy and flaky conditions. Calming Jojoba was created to help address this.”