Like Having a Personal Spa Consultant Right in Your Own Home
At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, life’s curves seem more stressful and beyond individual control. While we can’t do much about macro-economic forces, we can control self-care and rejuvenation – eating right, exercise, sleep and finding physical and emotional balance – all essential to coping with stress and improving health. No wonder, then, that more and more people are turning to the wellness movement and the spa industry is booming.
According to a survey released in 2007 by the International Spa Association (ISPA) and Price Waterhouse Cooper, the spa industry is growing at 16% a year, with approximately 14,600 spas in the United States serving more than 111 million people. While many people don’t have time or the money to seek out day spas in their area or travel to a distant destination spa, they will now have the next best thing – a virtual spa on the worldwide web.
MySpaShop.com is the Web’s first virtual spa offering everything you need to lead the spa lifestyle — accessible to anyone, anytime, anywhere. MySpaShop.com brings together experts, treatments and shopping for the newest spa products and lets the spa community share personal stories. Top spa lifestyle advisors and beauty professionals educate site visitors on healing rituals, massages and facials, fitness and exercise, turning the bathroom into a spa, bathing as therapy, cleansing, meditation, healthy living and beauty therapies. Users will find nutritional and weight loss advice and more than 2,000 of the newest spa products and skincare lines including many now only available at destination spas. Visitors will also find a community of like-minded people where they can share their stories and get peer support.
MySpaShop.com is the creation of Kimberley Matheson-Shedrick, CEO of Natural Resources Spa Consulting, Inc., a leading spa consultant whose high-end clients include the CuisinArt Resort and Spa in Anguilla, the Fontainebleau Resorts in Miami Beach and Las Vegas and the Four Seasons Hotels in Moscow, New York City and Vail. Partnering with husband Rick Shedrick, a principal at Hewlett-Packard, she has combined his business and eCommerce acumen with her spa passion to create this exciting new venture.
“When you want the healing hands to be your own, MySpaShop.com is an informative and engaging one-stop resource and spa lifestyle community,” explains Matheson-Shedrick. “Wherever you live, whatever your schedule, MySpaShop.com will be there to support you in integrating spa and well-being into your daily routine. “
Indeed, MySpaShop.com promises to be the most personal and interactive spa website worth its salt scrub. For example the site will assist consumers who want to learn about their unique constitution or Ayurvedic “doshas” – Vata, Pitta and Kapha. The site also has advice about skin care and anti-aging products that can be customized for any skin type or need.
“Not all of us have the time, money, privilege or luxury of travel, yet we understand the importance of taking time for ourselves and being healthy and aging well,” Matheson-Shedrick said. “At MySpaShop.com, we want to give consumers this experience on-line, virtually. Travel to Bali, feel the passion of a romantic javalulur body treatment and be able to purchase the sumptuous products, as well as learn the recipe to do this whenever and wherever.”
Kim Matheson-Shedrick and team are constantly touring the world creating new spas and searching out global healing rituals to share on the site. Her spa specialists can recommend extraordinary spa experiences and spa products that are sensory, personal and inspiring. Also featured are collections from regional artisans they’ve discovered.
A section called Passions will usher users into the secrets of spa menus and pleasures via articles and recipes vetted by the site’s top advisors, covering the world’s time-honored healing rituals, from Ayurveda to Thalasso Therapy. Here, consumers can learn about bathing as therapy, sleep remedies, detoxification, aromatherapy and massage therapy. This section also presents the latest in diet, nutrition, exercise, fitness and anti-aging, along with specific recommendations of beauty products for face, body, hands and feet, as well as fabulous linens and fragrances. Spa travel experiences such as girlfriend getaways will also be discussed here.
Shopping will feature more than 2,000 spa related products, including many highly effective and niche brands that are only available currently at distinctive spas. Shoppers will be able to choose from a global collection of more than 50 distinctive brands, including apparel that Kim and her advisors love most. New lines, products and information will be introduced on an ongoing basis.
Eco-friendly and natural products will include organic clothing, linens, skin and body care, hair and nail lines. Creating a Spa at home will be made easy. Fitness equipment, and bathroom fixtures will be offered from unique lines featured in top spas and luxury hotels. Not only will users benefit from many esoteric and one-of-a-kind products, they will benefit global communities through MySpaShop.com’s fair trade practices.
The Community section will be an interactive forum with access to specialists. Members and lifestyle advisors can share comments, get support from their peers, have a laugh or cry, or learn about best practices for integrating well-being into daily habits and other relevant topics. According to Matheson-Shedrick, topics have been seeded, but users will be able to add their own. Spa advisers will participate in the forums, talking about what’s new in the marketplace and asking for community comment. “Nothing else on the net has this type of paradigm for shopping, information and community,” adds Matheson-Shedrick.
A Concierge feature – Ask Zigi – will make shopping easy and secure. If a shopper has any questions mSS will provide a detailed response from an expert such as an esthetician, massage therapist, ayurvedic practioner, nutritionist, Traditional Chinese Medicine Doctor, personal trainer, interior designer and/or Feng Shui master. Our team of spa visionaries will remove the mystery to shopping and living well. In addition, the site offers members m$$ Rewards for loyalty through purchases and referrals of friends. Site registration is free.
“MySpaShop.com will do what no other site is doing – help people feel better not only about themselves but also about the world,” Matheson-Shedrick adds. “Centering yourself and finding balance changes both your inward and outward look, and we will help you get there day by day. Whether you want to lose five pounds, or purchase skin care products designed just for your skin type, or escape on a virtual journey to one of our spa destinations, your greatest wealth is your physical, emotional and spiritual health. Focus on that, with the help of MySpaShop.com, and whatever else happens, you’ll be all right. I believe the world needs it.”