Amazon and third-party delivery services have setup a “warehouse” outside the Astor Place USPS office. This is not a truck parking for five minutes. This a day-long, everyday occurrence. I’ve seen this same scene on a daily basis all around the city for the last three years.
This hurts local retailers. While the local businesses pay extra taxes to operate a store in southern Manhattan, it costs Amazon much less to park a delivery truck (permanently?), put ...
Read More
How to set interior designer pricing for your brands.
September 28, 2023
FOR BRANDS AND DISTRIBUTORS
Your Shop Local Store has a new feature: Interior designers can now view interior designer pricing for your brands and make purchases. If an interior designer is approved by your business, they can log in to your account and buy items at the wholesale designer price set by your business.
In the example shown, we see an interior designer logged in to BIA Cordon Bleu's account. The interior designer can place wholesale orders at the designer pricing set by ...
Read More
How to view key performance statistics to determine how Shop Local is helping your business.
September 11, 2023
Your Shop Local Store has a new feature: We've added a new Performance Statistics page to your account. This page makes it easier to access your account's stats.
Previously, this page was titled "How Shop Local is Helping My Business?" Now, the page is titled "My Account's Performance Statistics."
For Retailers, the stats displayed on the Performance Statistics page include:
This chic rustic wastebasket will brighten up the bathroom or bedroom! Made from exotic natural vines, it has organic copper brown tones and is a wonderful replacement for plastic garbage bins. We advise using it solely to hold dry trash given that it is made from a natural material and without a liner. Another thought? If you want to give your room a touch of greenery, try a grown plant.
This gorgeous bread basket may be used to organize all of your buns, rolls, breadsticks, or French baguette slices to make an eye-catching display at your dinner table. It is a hand-woven item with a neutral hue that fits in nicely with both coastal and bohemian settings. It is constructed from organic, natural forest vines. Given its size and attractive appearance, this bread basket is perfect for welcoming guests.
Imagine gifting a stress-free wedding planning experience to your best friend, sister, daughter or daughter in law to be. This gift set was created by Master Wedding Planner Kristin Sullivan after 25 years in the industry. She curated these products intentionally for Brides to Be to actually enjoy the journey of their entire wedding planning process. Included in the beautifully boxed set: *A wedding journal & planning guide; a place to document the love story & planning details while ...
Read More
It was October 2021, and I had just finished my first in-person trends seminar since the pandemic impacted all industry shows. At the end of the image-packed program, an audience member raised her hand and challenged, “Do trends even matter anymore?”
It was a valid question. The pandemic had disrupted business, upended supply chains, transformed education, revealed vulnerabilities, altered priorities, and unexpectedly claimed many lives. The question was tinged with cynicism. Pent...
Read More
Present your bread in this hand-woven basket made of biodegradable vines when entertaining. Its natural vine composition gives it a lovely rustic look and feel. The neutral color of the vine works well in a variety of settings, from bohemian to contemporary, and with any type of baked goods, such as a loaf of bread, bagels, muffins, or baguettes. It's oval in shape and looks great on its own or with a decorative napkin. Available in 2 sizes.
These vine baskets do not need to be washed every ...
Read More
THIN AND SIMPLE says it all, a perfect moniker for Pampa Bay’s latest juggernaut, a throwback to the shapes and looks the company achieved in stainless steel, its one-time material of choice, a decade ago. Then, in 2016, Carlos Barbagallo, president and owner, decided to segue into the dishwasher-safe, tarnish-free porcelain that looks like metal, using a proprietary, state-of-the-art technology that’s neither painted nor glazed. “Thin and Simple is our homage to the looks we ...
Read More
When I bought a gift at Sugarboo & Co., the store placed this coupon in my shopping bag. I like this strategy. I saved this coupon and left it on my countertop. That’s good for the store.
Our Store software could do something similar. It could send to customers a coupon in their digital receipts. For example, let’s imagine a person makes a retail purchase off your online Store. The customer could receive a coupon in their purchase ...
Read More
Ronald Reagan said, “If you’re explaining, you’re losing.” Reaganomics usually refers to tax cuts and trickle down economics, yet I propose that we take the Gipper’s quote and ask: How can simplicity contribute to a business's success?
When we share what leading companies do, we can often skip an explanation and sum it up in a brief sentence. Examples:
NEW YORK, NY, Oct. 24, 2022 – Bridge, an e-commerce community, reported that it's helping indie stores rank on page one of Google in 76% of states for wedding gift purchases. The findings are based on a recent study that Bridge conducted regarding wedding registry purchasing.
Study Findings:
For 38 state searches, Bridge Stores appeared on page one of Google. This represents 76% of all states. When just calculating the states in which Bridge has clients (48),
Your Bridge now helps more customers learn about your free shipping offer. If your store offers free shipping, a blue banner will display at the bottom of a product's Results and Details pages.
Before this update, customers would have to view their shopping bag in order to view your store's free shipping offer.
In the example, we see a Juliska Berry & Thread Whitewash Dinner Plate.
At the bottom of the page, we see the blue free shipping banner displayed.
In 35 states, Bridge Stores appeared on page one of Google when doing a wedding registry related search. In many states, Bridge Stores dominated the results. For example, for Georgia and South Carolina searches Bridge Stores claimed six spots on Google's first page.
Study Details:
We Googled "gift registry" and the state’s name.
We researched results for 48 states. (Bridge has clients in 48 states; the only states that don
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. ...
Read More
In the movie Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon, who plays a handsome MIT janitor moonlighting as a math savant (can one say, “Hollywood career vehicle”?), woos a young lady (played by the actress Minnie Driver) by outmaneuvering a few competing, obnoxious cads. When Damon’s character gets the girl's telephone number, he proudly shows it to the other guys and boasts, with his South Boston access, “How 'bout ‘dem apples?” I imagine Tim Cook imitating this...
Read More
In the past, we’ve used spin classes and gyms as inspiration for Bridge. We see them as metaphors for helping retail business owners. The founders of SoulCycle, Elizabeth Cutler and Julie Rice, must have been eavesdropping on us: they are expanding their spinning approach to another sphere. The Times reports they have started Peoplehood, a business that seeks to help people via self-help (group-help?) sessions. It’s SoulCycle for the soul&...
Read More
While eating a slice of coal-fired pizza at Arturo’s in Soho yesterday, and getting an occasional whiff of Houston Street garbage, I had to admit: I was at a loss for insight to share with my coworkers this week. Each week, I send out a motivational message to my team that precedes a summary of what they accomplished. We call this report the Brick report. This would be my seventy-second Brick introduction: What else could I say--and would they miss it if there was not an introduction...
Read More