Joe Eberling, founder of Funbox China, has imported outdoor gear like Smith snowboarding goggles and Element Skateboards into China since 2002. He advises that new entrants not try to shift their brand’s home-country image in an attempt to satisfy some vaguely defined notion of what appeals to Chinese shoppers. “A brand is like a person, you can never change somebody’s personality,” Eberling says. “Some brands come to China and change their image and they end up being untrue.” Consumers are suspicious of sellers they don’t know well, partly due to numerous food and product-safety scandals and because the country as a whole is a low-trust society. A brand that is able to present itself as authentic and true to its roots has a better chance of success.