Merchant Spotlight: Natural Healing Tools

Q: Why is wellness a great market for launching an online store? What about the market led you to create Natural Healing Tools?

Dr. Jim Urban: Wellness is a lifestyle. Natural Healing Tools products are selected to compliment a healthy lifestyle choice. These tools are supportive to the idea of long term solutions to optimum health.

Natural Healing Tools recognizes that there is a growing need for holistic tools. With this idea in 2004, Natural Healing Tools store came about. Dr. Jim Urban selects products from his years of using wellness tools in his own life. He researches various products and their attributes - always with the thought of promoting health for himself, his family, patients and clients of Natural Healing Tools.

Natural Healing Tools does not compromise our standards. We seek qualified and quality researchers and innovators in a market controlled by a large health care system. Many of our products are used by Dr. Jim Urban and his staff to understand how they work. Natural Healing Tools does not compromise posting products just to have products. Dr. Urban reads the background information and asks questions prior to putting on his site.

Q: What are some of the most important attributes of a balanced, healthy lifestyle?

Dr. Urban: Healthy lifestyle, to us is the total integration of the mind, body, spirit and heart. Natural Healing Tools assists individuals with products that endeavor to support this goal. For example, our customers may come looking for an organic supplement and also find a great stress reduction tool.

Q: What are some myths about wellness products? How necessary are these products in our daily lives?

Dr. Urban: There are many myths about wellness products - That they will provide some "magical bullet" to some chronic condition that may have been brewing for several years...more then likely from poor lifestyle choices.

How necessary? - Really depends on how high of a priority and to what degree an individual wants to explore their wellness potential. The many articles on our site help to educate our customers as to how they can enhance their lives and support a healthy, active lifestyle. Also Dr. Jim's blog addresses current issues relating to that lifestyle and high order of wellness. This is a personal choice. But the path to wellness requires the person to take control of their health. Do the homework. And try products to find the right solutions to their personal balance of mind, body, spirit and heart.

Q: Why did you choose to offer different options for receiving your health news? What makes them different and what has been the response from customers?

Dr. Urban: There is a tremendous wealth of health information on the Internet. We try to bring together product news and article information that address a more holistic and natural choice of health. We may include other articles that we find interesting to share with our viewers. Our web store is the home of product information, frequently asked questions, research and facts about our products. Our blog and newsletter are more about breaking news, research and new discoveries in the holistic health environment.

Q: How have health and wellness products changed over the last couple of decades? What new trends are you seeing in the 21st century?

Dr. Urban: How health and wellness products changed over the years - We see some great products come and go. You would think that if a product was helping people, it would be easy to access and word would get around... not so! We see the testing regulations getting more and more stringent so the smaller, innovative companies have a difficult time bringing products to market. this is not just in the US but we see this as a global problem. Consequently, many promising products with initial results that are stellar never make it to market.

New trends - We're seeing that the younger generations are attracted to the idea of natural/organic products and tools. We're excited to see this kind of growing participation.

Q: What tools have you integrated into your site for life balance?

Dr. Urban: Hopefully people can see that all of our products and tools help promote a balanced lifestyle in one way or another.

Specifically, the 4 areas we talk about are:
1. Mind: We carry products that relax the mind like Light and Sound Machines. We also have supplements that are formulated to enhance memory recall and mental performance. And we have computer programs that track stress and wellness.
2. Body: Natural Healing Tools carries natural supplements, organic skin care and a full line of detox products.
3. Spirit: Natural Healing Tools has a line of Subtle Energy Jewelry. This helps block negative emotions and enhance concentration. Fascinating concept!
4. Heart: Heart can be defined as the physical or the emotional. We carry products for both.

Q: What feedback have you received from customers and how does this affect your product inventory?

Dr. Urban: Our customers call with many questions. If the answer is not on the site or not easy to find, we improve that information which comes from our manufacturers.

Natural Healing Tools receives many calls for solutions that we don't have. We have a list of requests that we are seeking new products for. Sometimes we find products that are not up to our standard and we seek again. Sometimes products are simply not available in the US.

Q: How have you utilized your social media pages (Twitter, your blog) to keep customers informed? How do they differ from the information on the store site?

Dr. Urban: The Natural Healing Tools web store is a product site. The health and wellness products we represent are thouroughly documented and information added as new information is available.

The Natural Healing Tools Blog, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook are where current, breaking news in the holistic health market is posted. While product announcements and specials are available as well, the primary focus is holistic health. We also feature a regular newsletter to our customers providing current market and product features.

Q: What new manufacturers do you hope to add to your vendor partners and why?

Dr. Urban: We are currently testing several products and working with new distributors/manufacturers to bring in products/tools that we know will impact our customers. We are looking at some new products specifically in the EMF market. Stay tuned to our site for an announcement coming soon.

Q: What else would you like to share with us about Natural Healing Tools?

Dr. Urban: A sincere thanks to Monster Marketplace for providing great exposure and affording us the opportunity to be in the Merchant Spotlight!