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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
+ Bridge in the News - Bridge in the News

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April 20, 2022 NYT: How Barnes & Noble Went From Villain to Hero
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NYT: How Barnes & Noble Went From Villain to Hero
April 20, 2022
Excerpt:

"Today, virtually the entire publishing industry is rooting for Barnes & Noble — including most independent booksellers. Its unique role in the book ecosystem, where it helps readers discover new titles and publishers stay invested in physical stores, makes it an essential anchor in a world upended by online sales and a much larger player: Amazon."

Read the full article: 
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/15/arts/barnes-noble-bookstores.html
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April 12, 2022 Moat-us Operandi 🏰
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Moat-us Operandi 🏰
April 12, 2022
When I flew home yesterday from Charleston, while most people were seeking relief from their sunburns and reminiscing about their vacations, I was delving into The Wall St. Journal’s profile on Tracy Britt Cool, an ex- Berkshire Hathaway star.  Mrs. Cool’s new company Kanbrick invests in businesses with $10m - $50m in revenue.  What does Mrs. Cool look for when investing in a company? People and moats. 

At Bridge, we’re reading Jim Collins’ Beyond ...
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March 30, 2022 How Does Bridge Compare to Faire?
How Does Bridge Compare to Faire?
March 30, 2022
Stores and brands sometimes ask us: How does Bridge compare to Faire?

I thought we'd compare the two service providers.

Similarities: Bridge & Faire
  • Audience. Both service the retail industry. In particular, both service brands and retailers. Bridge also services sales reps, and Faire tries to steer clear of them--which is one reason reps don't like Faire much.
  • Delivery method. Both are online platforms.
  • Service offered. Faire is a wholesale marketplace. It
...
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March 28, 2022 Globalization's Effects on Hiring and Shopping Local 🖼
Globalization's Effects on Hiring and Shopping Local 🖼
March 28, 2022
Some people like to sit on the sofa and eat Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. I roll my eyes at this because I’m very different: I like to read the Wall St. Journal’s Christopher Mims …while eating an entire pint of Ben & Jerry’s on the sofa. This past weekend, Mr. Mims suggested companies may be reassessing where they source products, some even considering more domestic production. The motivation for this started a few years ago with the U.S.-China trade war, ...
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March 8, 2022 Brands Helping Their Stores and Themselves
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Brands Helping Their Stores and Themselves
March 8, 2022
How are brands helping their stores--and themselves? They are telling retailers that Bridge is a sales solution for them. For example, Pampa Bay doubled its sales vs. last year on the Bridge platform. One way Pampa Bay increased its sales is by consistently promoting its Bridge service across various mediums. When one visits the Pampa Bay site, one can see the platforms the brand uses in the upper right-hand corner. We can see the brand uses Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Bridge. Pampa...
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March 6, 2022 Our Digital Gym 🏋️‍♀️
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Our Digital Gym 🏋️‍♀️
March 6, 2022
In a recent NY Times article about working out, the author Christie Aschwanden gives readers tips on how to make working out more enjoyable. (Read the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/well/move/habits-motivation-exercise.html). In reading this, I saw many parallels between working out and helping our stores get their websites ‘in shape.’ The author encourages readers to not think of working out as exercise and instead think of it as "hanging out with friends...
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January 23, 2022 Jason Gets Put Under the Microscope 🔬
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Jason Gets Put Under the Microscope 🔬
January 23, 2022
Jim Collins, in his book BE 2.0, explains how purpose and mission are important to companies. To help explain this, he uses the metaphor of crossing a mountain range and seeing a star on the horizon. Your purpose is to reach the spot on the horizon below the star. The current mission is climbing up the mountain you’re on. The next mission is climbing up the next mountain and so forth in order to get closer to the spot on the horizon. You will have many missions, and may never ...
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January 16, 2022 HFN: Amazon overtakes Bed Bath & Beyond’s lead in wedding registries
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HFN: Amazon overtakes Bed Bath & Beyond’s lead in wedding registries
January 16, 2022
HFN shares a study reporting that Amazon is now the leader in gift registry usage. The report, by investment bank Baird, states the leaders are:
  1. Amazon (45% of brides are registered at Amazon)
  2. Bed Bath & Beyond (30%)
  3. Target (26%)
  4. Crate & Barrel (15%) and Williams-Sonoma (15%)
Notably, Macy's is not even in the top-five list.

Compare the above with 2017's results:
  1. Bed Bath & Beyond (44%)
  2. Target (29%)
  3. Amazon (20%)
  4. Macy's (19%)
The report also shares ...
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January 16, 2022 A New Vow for Brides: I Swear To Love Platforms That Support Communities
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A New Vow for Brides: I Swear To Love Platforms That Support Communities
January 16, 2022
Today’s Times shares that Amazon Prime members often spend twice as much compared to those that aren’t members. This led to me ponder: What if a first step to reducing Amazon’s monopolies is just canceling a $119/year ‘membership’? Prime may be Amazon’s strength—as well as its achilles. If we can find a way to undermine it, I believe one can save money and our communities. 

A recent study shared that Amazon is now the leading provider of ...
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January 14, 2022 Building Bridges 🌁
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Building Bridges 🌁
January 14, 2022
We’re about building bridges here at Bridge, and we couldn’t help but notice all the bridges at the AmericasMart. Let’s connect our industry :) View Post
January 7, 2022 Nice show, nice friends
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Nice show, nice friends
January 7, 2022
Happy to visit the Dallas show and connect with industry friends. Thanks to Matt Hullfish (Casafina) and Kerry Smith (Keith Smith rep group) for helping make the show a success—and make the industry fun.  View Post
December 30, 2021 Bloomberg: Shopify vs. Amazon
Bloomberg: Shopify vs. Amazon
December 30, 2021
Last February e-commerce company Shopify Inc. replaced the “Ottawa, Canada” dateline that began its press releases and earnings reports with a strange new one: “Internet, Everywhere.” The geographical shift came at the insistence of Shopify’s founder and chief executive officer, Tobi Lütke, who tends to view such matters through the prism of cold, hard logic. In May 2020, only a few months into the pandemic, he’d made the early, seemingly rash decision to...
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December 7, 2021 We choose to be colorful.
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We choose to be colorful.
December 7, 2021
At Mottahedeh, we choose to be colorful. That is for dinnerware or decorative objects for your home.
The historical story is important to us, because it represents the best of a culture of the past. For our reproductions and adaptations of designs, we try to understand the perspective of someone in those times and be true to their idea. For instance, if we are making an adaptation of a dinner plate from the 1750’s we would not take one motif that is repeated six times around the plate and...
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December 6, 2021 Take 'The Urkel Challenge' 🤓
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Take 'The Urkel Challenge' 🤓
December 6, 2021
Scott Galloway, an NYU marketing professor and soon-to-be CNN host, suggests that when we assess a market, we start by asking how much one's experience using the service has changed in the past few decades. For example, when you go to your doctor’s office, if you were to spin around and pretend it’s 1990, how different is your experience today vs. 30 years ago? Scott often critiques doctors' offices, hospitals, and colleges because he believes they have not evolved enough in services...
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November 29, 2021 Platforms 👠
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Platforms 👠
November 29, 2021
When I was 24-years old, a market research company sent me to Philadelphia to survey potential users about a new offering from General Electric Finance. Your first question may be: "Wait, Jason was once 24?" Your second may be: "GE had a consumer finance arm?" Yes, and yes. GE was once a conglomerate with its hands in many industries, from television to nuclear reactors to jet engines. GE, like Toshiba and Johnson & Johnson, has since shrunk. But the era of the ...
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November 17, 2021 ShopLocal.org
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ShopLocal.org
November 17, 2021
Last week, a gift shop in Alabama signed up for Bridge and had a coaching call with Jordyn, our retailer coach. Within one day, the retailer had a Bridge Store offering 15k products and a full suite of online services to serve its customers. (See the store's Bridge account here: https://shealeighs.bridgecatalog.com) 

I’m even amazed at what our software can do!  Our software requires a lot of parts to come together: our tech team codes the software, our coaches call the stores...
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November 15, 2021 Ivystone: 5 Tips to Increase Web Sales
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Ivystone: 5 Tips to Increase Web Sales
November 15, 2021
Watch this video to learn five proven steps to grow web sales. Join me and Gina Thesing from Ivystone as we pull back the curtain on industry trends and delve in to solutions indie stores are using each day.

Webinar includes:
  • Five key steps that a store must take.
  • A homework check list that you can tailor to your store.
Next steps:
1. Watch the webinar: 
https://www.ivystone.com/Blog/marketingdigitaltools-2021-5-tips-to-increase-web-sales/

Webinar time: 51 minutes

2. You...
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October 18, 2021 Wedding & Gift Registry Preview Party
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Wedding & Gift Registry Preview Party
October 18, 2021
Announcing an evening soiree to launch our new Wedding & Gift Registry - Wednesday October 27th 4-6pm. We are inviting all those involved in the wedding industry - event planners, florists, caterers, and other industry influencers - to join us in our showroom to learn more about our exclusive access to the finest brands in entertaining and home decor. While enjoying champagne and light hors d'oeuvres, our guests will have the opportunity to chat with our interior design team and learn about ...
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October 17, 2021 Nash Bridges
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Nash Bridges
October 17, 2021
While watching Salvage Kings, a Hulu TV show about a Canadian salvage company, I learned that the Nash automobile company’s 1920s slogan was "Give the customer more than he has paid for.” From Wikipedia, I learned the cars lived up to their slogan:

“Innovations included a straight-eight engine with overhead valves, twin spark plugs, and nine crankshaft bearings in 1930....A long-time proponent of automotive safety, Nash was among the early mid- and low-priced cars ...
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September 26, 2021 Bridge Beats The Knot and Walmart
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Bridge Beats The Knot and Walmart
September 26, 2021
When it comes to gift registries, Bridge helps indie stores rank higher in Google than other players in the retail industry. In the example shown, we see four retailers using Bridge to rank on page 1 of Google. Two retailers beat The Knot, and four beat Walmart.

While our indie stores are just a fraction of the size of The Knot or Walmart, they outrank them because they use Bridge's technology. Bridge's software and network of websites offers advantages that bigger entities can't overcome ...
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Next page

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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