Meet the woman who aims to be China’s Martha Stewart

A Beijing-based entrepreneur is taking on U.S. lifestyle icon Martha Stewart with a homegrown Chinese app that uses face-scanning technology to suggest high-end products.

Sara Jane Ho is more known among China’s wealthy for her books and courses in Western etiquette, but the 30-year-old has recently set up a “personal growth and development” retail platform she expects more than 150,000 elite Chinese will use.

The app will sell luxury goods from handbags to furniture, and uses face-scanning technology programmed with Chinese traditional theories — such as feng shui — to detect which products a consumer may need.

“Feng shui is a very important part of my platform,” said Ho. “You need to have a certain level of wealth and status in China to be able to appreciate and afford feng shui.”

Ho sees her new platform, called GenTree, as a high-end, more modern improvement on Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

Stewart, 76, became the first U.S. self-made female billionaire on the back of her lifestyle empire.

She visited China last year when Sequential Brands, which bought her brand in 2015, announced a partnership with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to sell products.

Stewart, who remains chief creative officer of the company, in 2014, set her sights on turning it into one of the biggest homewares brands in Asia. But Ho — who was born in Hong Kong and operates her etiquette courses from Beijing, where she also runs a highend private members club — said local knowledge is crucial to break the Chinese market.

“Martha Stewart was targeting the Middle American housewife, and China’s population has so many multiples more,” said Ho.

“She came to China about a year ago, but I think she is getting less relevant. China is a totally different animal than the West. If you do not speak the language or know the culture, and you are not here all the time, it is a lot harder to be fully committed.”

Stewart is seeking to entice middle-class consumers, while GenTree is more geared toward China’s wealthy elite.

WIKIPEDIA COMMONS Sara Jane Ho is set to give Martha Stewart a run for her money. The Chinese entrepreneur has developed a new app designed to attract elite Chinese consumers. Ho says Stewart, who hopes to make inroads in Asia, is handicapped by her lack of familiarity...