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
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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We've added a new feature to your Bridge: customers and staff can now more quickly access your Bridge.
We've given you QR codes that point to your important pages.
Over the last two years, QR codes have grown in popularity. QR codes are a quick way to access websites--especially sub pages of a website.
Without QR codes, customers and staff have to Google your website. Then, once they find it, they have to navigate to the correct page, such as the registry home page or the reviews
An article in today’s Times cites the high cost of acquiring customers, which ranges from $100 to $800. Excerpt:
“Estimates of an often-cited retail metric known as customer acquisition costs range from $100 to more than $800 per customer, said Daniel McCarthy, a professor at Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business, who has done extensive research in the field.”
Physical retail is one of the most expensive ways to acquire customers. An online ...
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Our job at Bridge is fighting for indie stores. A key indicator of our success is when we give your store more online orders. An important step in giving you more orders is: giving you more products online.
Good news: you have the Product Pass. This grants your business the power to sync with unlimited Product Syncing brands for free. This is the best way to fill your website with products.
Benefits:
The Pass allows you to sync with unlimited brands.
At my local postal shop, which doubles as a surprise book purveyor and emergency greeting card supplier, I picked up this guide by Monocle, a magazine and book publisher, about indie shops. The book, ‘The Monocle Guide to Shops, Kiosks, and Markets,’ has an appreciation for brick-and-mortar retail that mirrors our ethos here at Bridge. Local shops bring people together and support communities unlike online-only marketplaces. We encourage citizens to ‘unplug’ and browse ...
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🥂Wedding season is upon us... We’re sincerely grateful to all Skyros brides and their grooms for allowing us to share this very special time of your life… We wish you joy, love and happiness on your wedding day as you begin your new life together! 🤍🥂🤍
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#skyrosbride
#skyrosdesigns
#shoplocal
#weddingwednesday
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Weekend’s are for shopping… we hope yours stacks up to be a good one!
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Each trivet is hand woven by master artisans... taking 8 days to complete. Our hand woven collection items are truly special works of art! Trivets are available in Matte White, Sheer Blue, Greige, Red, White, and Morning Sky. #skyrosdesigns #shoplocal #sdtablestyle
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Your Bridge has a new feature: you can now choose what type of retail business you have. For example, you may choose "Kitchen store" and "Home goods store." When you pick these sectors, we'll send you customers looking for your business type. How? We help you rank higher in Google. Bridge accomplishes this by outputting this information about your business around the web. In particular, Bridge outputs these sectors on your account, on other members' accounts, and ...
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I think that Zola, an online provider of gift registries, may be harming local stores. Zola allows brides to pick things from any site, such as an indie store’s gift registry. Zola may then encourage the registrant to bypass that local store and use those gift funds with Zola. This is an issue because Zola has handled more than 650,000 registries, and its revenue is estimated to be $130m. Millions of dollars may have been diverted away from indie, brick-and-mortar stores to Zola&rsquo...
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A new trend in retail is vacant shops in urban neighborhoods being converted to small warehouses. In the East Village on 10th Street, we see on the left the new warehouse model; on the right we see a traditional retailer. For the ‘store’ on the left, the customer orders via their mobile phone and then does a pickup or gets a delivery.
I’m seeing more of these ‘zombie stores’ around the city. Just in the East Village, I’ve seen four: ...
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I recently saw an advertisement for Windows 11 in Wired magazine. I thought: “Wow, finally something from Microsoft that someone can understand: a logical name for their software offering.” I recall a time when Microsoft had a confusing litany of software names including: NT, 98, 2000, Millennium (ME), Windows XP, and Vista--before finally relegating those clumsy names to the desktop recycle bin and adopting a simple, progressive number system. Apple has been naming its ...
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I recently bought a pair of jeans from the bike-lifestyle company Rapha. I find Rapha's stores, emails, and mission to be inspiring to Bridge, and I'll explain why.
First, you may ask, "What is Rapha?" Rapha is a product company that sells goods for biking, including shirts, shorts, helmets, and accessories. What is unique is the lengths it goes to foster a community (and sales!) by having a coffee shop in it, organizing riding events, offering members-only clothing...
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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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We send an email to customers after they make a purchase on a retailer's website. The email thanks the customer for shopping local. A customer replied with this message:
From: Sherrie **********
Subject: Re: My pleasure
Date: January 7, 2022 at 3:51:33 PM EST
To: Jason Solarek
Mr. Solarek,
I cannot tell you what a pleasure it was to receive your email today. It was nice to see a CEO reach out to a customer in appreciation. In today’s busy world, that just doesn’t ...
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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.