West Virginia ranks No. 7 on Amazon list for growth in digital entrepreneurship

Two Hampshire County business owners are working to build back up their stocks after a run on many of their products, including reusable paperless towels, baby wipes and cloth napkins, in the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We got really busy back in March, like really busy,” said Gina Jordan, founder of Gina’s Soft Cloth Shop which is based in Romney.

“People were really buying our stuff. They really just kind of bought us out, to some degree, from Amazon, but it’s kind of leveled off a little bit now so we’re trying to catch up at this point.”

Gina’s Soft Cloth Shop started about a decade ago as a hobby business for Jordan when she was recovering from an injury.

Victoria Kesner, now a co-owner, began working for Jordan in 2014.

In 2015, the company joined Amazon as a third-party seller.

What is now a corporation was formed in 2018.

“We went from one of the bedrooms in Gina’s house to a 2,000 square foot or more place,” Kesner said.

Their Romney store has served local customers during the pandemic with masks, alterations and paperless products.

Jordan estimated the company had produced and sold or donated more than 2,000 masks.

Online, customers can buy products on Amazon, Etsy and ginassoftclothshop.net.

West Virginia is ranked No. 7 nationally for year-over-year growth for small and medium-sized businesses, like Gina’s Soft Cloth Shop, that are selling with Amazon. The company reported the Mountain State’s most recent growth rate was 45 percent.

Such businesses are in every state and more than 130 countries.

Jordan said the reach of sites like Amazon allowed her to add positions to her workforce of nine in Romney during the pandemic while other businesses were laying off workers.

Overall, “It’s been very up and down,” she said of status of her business because of COVID-19 after record sales in March and April.

“That’s one reason I really encourage businesses to have multiple revenue sources and the internet is an excellent way to do that because you can tap people that you wouldn’t normally have in foot traffic walking into your shop and vice versa.”

In addition to retail sales, Gina’s Soft Cloth Shop offers wholesale items.

One of the company’s wholesale customers is in Tasmania

“If it wasn’t for Amazon and Etsy and online sales, we wouldn’t have such a big business at all,” Kesner said.





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