Business leader Scott Galloway said this past week on his podcast Pivot that "complexity is a tax on the poor." I'd expand on that and posit that: complexity is a tax on indie businesses.
What if indie businesses could reduce the complexity and costs of running an online business? I believe we can. Bridge is reducing the costs of running an online business for more than a thousand businesses.
How do we reduce the 'tax'? Bridge often helps a retailer set up an online store ...
Read More
This past week I finally started doing a better job of sharing our vision. A company’s vision and how it shares this story is a key pillar in its growth. A company can grow without being a good vision sharer (storyteller), but it makes the growth slower and harder. When one gets up on stage (metaphorically) and shares their vision, with passion, it’s magnetic and can help split the sea. What medium did we add to our story-sharing tools this week? Video. I made and shared ...
Read More
Today’s WSJ shares that independent stores, including hardware stores, book shops, and pharmacies, have teamed up to stop Amazon’s bad practices. The group, called Small Business Rising, seeks to use anti-trust laws to prevent Amazon marketplace from selling its own goods—which compete with retailers using the platform. Amazon has been shown to use a retailer’s customer and sales data and bypass the retailer (it’s own customer) in order to make a bigger profit. ...
Read More
This month’s Tableware Today contains three advertisements that display the Bridge logo. The brands show the logo to encourage businesses reading the magazine to connect with them on the Bridge software platform. Bridge is the easiest solution for businesses to share products and sell more.
In each advertisement, the logo appears in the lower right.
We thank Vista Alegre, Bordallo Pinheiro, and Pampa Bay for helping Bridge help connect our industry.
Read More
For many indie stores, running an online business is tough and expensive, shares today’s Times. For 10 years, Bridge has served indie stores by paving this process and making it easier. We started with two stores and now help more than 720 brick-and-mortar, Main Street community legends.
Excerpts from the Times article:
E-commerce grew by 33.6 percent in 2020.
Ten large retailers accounted for 68 percent of all U.S. e-commerce sales last year.
A product starts in a factory. Then, the goal is get it through the sales funnel. What steps does it go through en route to the consumer? In the drawing shown, the dots represent steps along the way.
When a product travels through the Amazon arc, it skips many steps that are important for consumer safety, the lives of working people in the retail industry, and local communities. We realize its smile logo may actually be a visual representation of the safeguards and ...
Read More
This is our 'Save Local' seal. Save Local has a double meaning: one can save money by shopping locally and they can support local businesses.
Shopping online may result in shipping charges. When shopping local, one can skip the shipping charges--and receive the item instantly.
A hallmark of indie stores is that they are often in walkable areas. For this reason, the sticker has a shoe and a bicycle. When one shops at big box stores, one often doesn't walk. They drive. Similarly,...
Read More
Jim Power, the legendary East Village mosaic artist, is profiled in the blog Bedford & Bowery. We share with Jim a passion to make local neighborhoods vibrant. Bridge commissioned Jim to create four mosaics for Bridge. Whereas Jim uses pieces of tile, marbles, and broken plates, Bridge's 'mosaics' are computer pixels. Regardless of the material, we both seek to help indie stores thrive. A vibrant community is a mosaic of indie businesses, artists, and organizations. The mosaics ...
Read More
The health of our communities and even ourselves may depend on whether indie stores like Powell's succeeds.
Powell's Books, one of the nation's largest and best-known book retailers, has stopped selling on Amazon after 20+ years, shares RetailDive. The store cited how bad Amazon is long-term for itself and communities. The store realized it was sharpening its executioner’s sword, as Scott Galloway has said ruefully.
I found this quote from the owner insightful:...
Read More
That is the question my family posed to me last night during our more-frequent FaceTime conversations.
With the passing Labor Day weekend, students entering their in-person or online school year, and the ending of a strange summer season during a global pandemic, people are looking forward to a time that can bring spirit and happiness to the darkness: the holidays.
But how holly and jolly will this holiday season be in terms of shopping? After all, the holidays are notorious ...
Read More
Part of my job is to review registry software. I ensure that it works well for retailers, registrants, and gift-givers (family and friends). I also assess whether it offers good value (price vs results).
A retailer recently shared with me that it uses the service MyRegistry.com. I reviewed the retailer's site and how a customer would make a registry purchase via MyRegistry.com. For privacy purposes, I changed the name of the store in the screenshots shown.
RETAILERS AND BRANDS GRAVITATE TO BRIDGE AMIDST PANDEMIC
For Immediate Release
Businesses Rush to Bridge During Pandemic
July 27, 2020
New York, NY – Bridge, an online e-commerce community, saw significant increases in membership during the COVID-19 pandemic. Retail membership increased by 17% and nine brands joined the platform, including Lenox, Kate Spade, Dansk, and Richard Ginori.
Since the spring, eighty stores have joined Bridge’s e-commerce service, bringing the ...
Read More
VIETRI AND BRIDGE PARTNER TO HELP INDEPENDENT STORES
Retailers Can Receive $150 For Joining Bridge Network
July 15, 2020
NEW YORK, NY – VIETRI, known as the premium importer of luxury tabletop goods from Italy, has launched a new program to help its independent specialty retailers online and in-store. VIETRI has agreed to offer its authorized retailers a credit of $150 towards future purchases by opening a free account with the e-commerce community ...
Read More
If we want our communities to re-open after Covid, we'll need to do more than just beat Covid. We have to shop at local places online in order to ensure they are there when our communities re-open. Need shoes, a TV, or a book? Your local store can help you. And, money you spend there stays in your community.
As you may recall, Amazon’s growth was partially due to it encouraging shoppers to use local stores as ‘showrooms’ and then complete the purchase on Amazon. Let&...
Read More
Today’s Wall Street Journal surveys niche social networks like Strava for fitness, BakeSpace for cooking, and Rate Your Music for music.
To this list I’d add: Bridge. Bridge is a niche social-media network serving the retail community. We connect thousands of businesses including brands, retailers, sales reps, publications, and trade groups.
The article shares people last year spent 57 billion hours on social networking and messaging apps via Android devices.