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  1. News from Us
  2. News from Members
  3. Events
  4. Press
  5. Dollars & Sense
  6. Profile Stories
  7. Updates
  8. Training Calendar
  9. Training Videos
  10. Jobs
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September 28, 2022 Tip: Reply to Reviews To Help Your Business
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Tip: Reply to Reviews To Help Your Business
September 28, 2022
We have a tip to help your business. You can easily boost the number of reviews your business receives on your Bridge.

Steps:
  1. When a customer leaves a review on your Bridge Store’s Review page, leverage this to get even more reviews. Reply to the review.
  2. Write a reply that acknowledges the customer's specific response. 

As an example, Goldsmith Cardel replies to every review left on its Bridge site.  Please see the example screenshots. 

Benefits of this ...
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September 23, 2022 Vanity 🪞
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Vanity 🪞
September 23, 2022
Today’s Gen Z gift registrants want to do everything online, often on their iPhone 14. They want to start a registry, add products, remove products, edit quantities, and view purchases. They don't want to call the store to do this.   

In the adoption of digital tools, another trend is also at play: female shoppers are busier than before. Today, more women graduate from college than men. Women are increasingly doctors, CEOs, and world leaders. (Italy just welcomed its ...
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September 22, 2022 FedEx Raising Rates Almost 7%
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FedEx Raising Rates Almost 7%
September 22, 2022
FedEx is raising shipping rates 6.9%, which provides an opportunity for stores to get shoppers in the physical store. Store owners can encourage customers to skip the expensive ‘shipping tax’ and just pick their purchase up in store. 

Read the full article at the WSJ:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/fedex-fdx-q1-earnings-report-2023-11663789784?mod=mhp View Post
September 19, 2022 Do We Have the Wright Stuff? 🛩
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Do We Have the Wright Stuff? 🛩
September 19, 2022
In the early 2000s, the board game Cranium became a hit.  The game combined elements of Scrabble and Pictionary with the goal of helping more people enjoy playing a game. Richard Tait, who created Cranium and sold it to Hasbro in 2008 for $77.5m, passed away in July.  Like Mr. Tait, I had been a paperboy, but he went beyond what I ever offered:  he came up with a new service that sold breakfast sandwiches along his newspaper route. He increased profits and made customers happier. ...
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September 19, 2022 David Zrike Welcomes Buyers to the Tabletop Show at Forty One Madison
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David Zrike Welcomes Buyers to the Tabletop Show at Forty One Madison
September 19, 2022
Nice to see industry friend David Zrike in the new issue of Tableware Today. In David’s article, he reminds us of the magic that happens at shows and welcomes us to join him and industry colleagues at the October Tabletop Show. 

In the issue, there is also a nice advertisement for the Tabletop Association, which David leads. Of the 48 brands displayed in the ad, Bridge has partnerships with 17 (35%).  Products from these 17 brands, which total more than 24,000 products, can be...
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September 15, 2022 Royal Crown Derby ITV News
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Royal Crown Derby ITV News
September 15, 2022
Dear Customers,

Please see below link to the ITV News article that aired this week regarding how proud Royal Crown Derby is to be associated with the Monarchy
 
ITV NEWS: https://we.tl/t-DjPxqLDGex

Sincerely,
DeVine Corporation
  View Post
September 14, 2022 California is suing Amazon
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California is suing Amazon
September 14, 2022
For the last 10 years, Bridge has been building software to support indie, brick-and-mortar stores.  We watched in 2018 as 230 city leaders competed to give the world’s richest man money to bring his tech company to their city. After awarding an HQ to NYC, Amazon tried to bully NYC. When Amazon wouldn’t get its way, it broke off the deal.  We see in today’s news more evidence of the same bullying behavior. We’re happy to see that the tide has turned and ...
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September 9, 2022 Store within another store
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Store within another store
September 9, 2022
RetailDive shares that Levi's is opening a shop within a shop in Hudson’s Bay's Vancouver store.  We believe in this concept. Bridge offers an online shop-in-shop experience via its Product Syncing service. 

Read the RetailDive article:
https://www.retaildive.com/news/levis-opens-shop-in-shop-hudsons-bay/631297/

Learn about Product Syncing:
https://www.shoplocal.org/smart-products.cfm
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September 4, 2022 Buying a Wedding Online
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Buying a Wedding Online
September 4, 2022
At Bridge, we make buying wedding gifts easy.  Today’s Times covers buying a wedding online, which may start at $2,000.   For people that grew up with an iPhone, it makes sense that more in-person purchases would be converted to online transactions.  

Read the full article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/01/fashion/weddings/wedding-planning-online-shopping.html
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September 3, 2022 Amazon’s desire to own everything gets flagged
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Amazon’s desire to own everything gets flagged
September 3, 2022
The WSJ shares that Amazon’s relentless growth is under investigation by the FTC.  The FTC is reviewing its $3.9b OneMedical purchase.  

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ftc-investigating-amazon-deal-to-buy-one-medical-network-of-health-clinics-11662157363 View Post
September 2, 2022 7 Ways to Support Local Businesses and Your Community from Entreprenuer
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7 Ways to Support Local Businesses and Your Community from Entreprenuer
September 2, 2022
Read the full article: 
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/434238

PS~Thanks to Danish for sharing this article 😎 View Post
September 1, 2022 Gift Cards Are a Gift to ...Stores 💸
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Gift Cards Are a Gift to ...Stores 💸
September 1, 2022
When is the last time you received a Starbucks gift card?  I’ve received them as holiday gifts, and I’ve given them to sales reps as thank you gifts. Starbucks gift cards, like their shops, are ubiquitous.  They are almost as popular as gift cards from our nemesis: Amazon.com. Just about every month, a company offers me an Amazon gift card if I sign up for a service. WBGO, the local, Newark-based, non-profit radio station known for jazz, recently offered me an Amazon gift ...
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August 26, 2022 Brands Need Stores
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Brands Need Stores
August 26, 2022
Over the last 15 years, brands have been increasingly doing a run-around to bypass their retailers and sell direct.  Some brands suggested they’d never have a physical store. Some brands said they’d never have their products sold in another retailer’s physical store. What allowed the brands this hubris? The internet and Facebook. With the internet, brands would have a ‘store’ anywhere the customer is, and with Facebook, they could target them.  

In ...
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August 25, 2022 WSJ: Business cards go digital
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WSJ: Business cards go digital
August 25, 2022
Adam Sigel, who heads up sales at Savanna Bee’s indie stores, recently showed me his ‘business card:’ a piece of metal with a QR code on it. I scanned Adam’s QR code and my phone offered to place his contact information in my phone’s address book.  This not only saved me time.  Behind the scenes, the software allows Adam to see who clicks on his scanned data—one can’t do that with a traditional business card. 

The Wall Street Journal ...
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August 15, 2022 We Suck 🪠
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We Suck 🪠
August 15, 2022
Last week, Amazon bought iRobot, the company that makes Roomba, the robot vacuum cleaner, for $1.7b.  Why? Yes, their 'Rosie from the Jetsons' has AI and is in your home (which is where Amazon wants to be), but the reason Amazon wants it is because customers want it. Which leads us to ask: Why do customers want Roomba? Because it does something that humans find annoying and hate doing: cleaning. Roomba has spotted the value that robots bring to the world and it's not simply being ...
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August 10, 2022 We Deliver and Install
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We Deliver and Install
August 10, 2022
I don’t own a car, yet I have a strange desire to read Dan Neil's car column each weekend in The Wall St. Journal.  Why would someone who doesn’t own a car, won’t be buying one soon, and hasn’t owned one in 25 years read a car column? It's a mix of enjoying the design and technology of automobiles, wanting to know what Dwayne Johnson may be buying next, loving Dan’s witty writing style, and, confession, simply being 13-years old at heart. Cars are ...
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August 9, 2022 Small businesses forced to wait till the fall for relief from Amazon
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Small businesses forced to wait till the fall for relief from Amazon
August 9, 2022
Excerpt: 

If passed, the law would bar huge online platforms such as Amazon’s e-marketplace, Apple’s app store, and Google’s search engine from giving preferential treatment to the company’s own products and services, such as steering consumers to in-house products instead of competitors’ offerings in a way that harms competition.

Read the full article: 
https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/antitrust-bill-targeting-big-tech-in-limbo-as-...
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August 7, 2022 Sales Reps Are Important
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Sales Reps Are Important
August 7, 2022
We all know that sales reps play a crucial role in our industry, but one may ask, “how important a role?” I was happy to see Ari Lowenstein, our industry friend at MarketTime, pen a report that measures the impact of sales reps in this digital era. 

The next time a brand extols the benefits of Faire or another online platform that cuts out reps, please share this article and its report with them. 

Thank you, Ari. 

Read the full article:
https://www....
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August 3, 2022 The Everything War
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The Everything War
August 3, 2022
An East Village Artist’s Death Prompts a Reflection on the State of Indie Retailers Today

…….

While thumbing through the Times, I noticed a smiling young woman’s picture in the obituaries. In the black and white photograph, she's standing on a fire escape with a historic building and a bridge in the distance.  I was initially attracted to Ronni Solbert’s 1959 picture, yet I was even more drawn in by what I noticed next to her photo: a children&...
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July 28, 2022 WSJ: The Challenges of Buying a Town’s Beloved Small Business
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WSJ: The Challenges of Buying a Town’s Beloved Small Business
July 28, 2022
The Wall St. Journal shares a story that many indie stores may be able to relate to: the challenge of selling your business. The Journal shares issues that arise when ownership changes.  Small, brick-and-mortar stores are more likely to face a big decline in sales than, say, a large IT company. 

Excerpt:
"The revenue drop following the sale of a business can range from an expected 20% to 30% in the case of an IT-services provider to 50% in the case of a hair salon, says Sam ...
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Press: Shop Local & Bridge in the News
Tableware Today Column: Saying I Do To Registries
Tableware Today Column: Saying I Do To Registries
October 2024

Tableware Today: New Leaderboard Column from Shop Local
Tableware Today: New Leaderboard Column from Shop Local
August 2024

Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants in Florida Get Google Sales Leads 🔍
Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants in Florida Get Google Sales Leads 🔍
April 2024

Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants in Tennessee Get Google Sales Leads 🔍
Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants in Tennessee Get Google Sales Leads 🔍
April 2024

Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants in Louisiana Get Google Sales Leads 🔍
Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants in Louisiana Get Google Sales Leads 🔍
April 2024

Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants in Delaware Get Google Sales Leads 🔍
Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants in Delaware Get Google Sales Leads 🔍
April 2024

Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants in Pennsylvania Get Google Sales Leads 🔍
Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants in Pennsylvania Get Google Sales Leads 🔍
March 2024

Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants Get Sales Leads in Mississippi
Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants Get Sales Leads in Mississippi
March 2024

Shop Local Merchants Are 60% of Google Page 1 Results in South Carolina
Shop Local Merchants Are 60% of Google Page 1 Results in South Carolina
March 2024

Shop Local Merchants Are 50% of Google Page 1 Results in Georgia
Shop Local Merchants Are 50% of Google Page 1 Results in Georgia
March 2024

Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants Get More Sales Leads than Big-Box Stores Using Google
Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants Get More Sales Leads than Big-Box Stores Using Google
February 2024

Shop Local Retailers Rank on Page 1 of Google in 60% of States
Shop Local Retailers Rank on Page 1 of Google in 60% of States
February 2024

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