I’m seeing a disturbing trend online. Stores are not sharing news and events on their websites. Instead, they are relying on Facebook (and Instagram, which it also owns) to perform this task. That’s like a customer coming into the physical store and the store manager saying: "Want our news and events? We don’t have it here. Go to the coffee shop next door—which will be filled with our competitors pitching to you."
I found this article about the new book 'Ding Dong! Avon Calling!' inspiring. Avon empowered many people to be in business for themselves. Bridge believes in a similar mantra of empowering people to start and run a retail business.
I appreciate Avon promoting an espirit de corps to motivate its thousands of sales people. I share news like this very post for the same reason. Our platform is designed to help members share and support each other--much like Avon's literature for sales ...
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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 ...
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Good news for indie stores: Florida will require out-of-state sellers shipping to the state to charge tax. Taxes are a big deal in Florida: since Florida has no income tax, it has a notable state sales tax (6%, compared with New York’s 4%), with Florida municipalities adding up to another 1.5%. The incentive to buy online from out of state 'saved' the Florida buyer about 7.5%.
Now, this Florida law will level the playing field and remove the incentive to dodge taxes as everyone ...
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Offering products that make people smile is a winning strategy. RetailDive shares that leading shoe brands Vans and Adidas are running with this strategy. Adidas recently offered Lego and Meissen shoes, and Vans offers shoes inspired by local businesses from across the country.
The sales of these shoes can be minimal, yet the effort is a marketing gold because its gets free press mentions and this helps the brand's halo.
Vans' Zabars shoes are part of a larger Vans campaign that ...
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Best of Thymes, an indie store in Iowa, just closed (https://bestofthymes.bridgecatalog.com/news.cfm?id=20645). Hopefully, they’ll continue to operate online and keep using Bridge. Best of Thymes is part of an industry-wide series of closures that is affecting large and small retailers. Due to this, brands are increasing their efforts to go D2C. Brands justify this by saying that there are fewer stores to show their wares. While this is true, surely they are motivated by: 2x the margins. ...
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Operating a website is expensive--not only because programmers are expensive, but because margins are smaller.
For 10 years, Bridge has encouraged stores to beef up spending in preparation for the e-commerce boom. It's easier to spend a little each year over many years than spend money in a panic. Money spent in haste often results in waste. As a reference, when traditional retailers tried to catch Amazon, they often failed in their scramble. Please recall Macy's buying the ...
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Companies with deep pockets and big connections to Wall St. have teamed up to make the Internet a dirtier place. Legislation is pending to make large sellers of new goods have to reveal the true seller of the good. The goal of the federal bill is to curtail the sale of fake and stolen goods through online marketplaces. This sounds logical. But not to: eBay, Poshmark, Mercari, and Etsy.
These businesses have hundreds of millions of dollars at stake from banks, investors, and rich people. They ...
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Brands and retailers used to be friends. Now they're: 'frenemies.' Brands continue to use the power of e-commerce websites and social media to work around retailers, as evidenced in this news that Nike is no longer selling to Macy's.
Saks formed new company a called Saks.com that will lead the company, shares today's WSJ. The physical stores will be moved from the 'drivers seat' to the 'passengers seat.' In a nod to Amazon.com and Walmart's success with third-party sellers, Saks.com will offer a marketplace and pay third-party sellers a commission.
When we watch or read the news, we can see how important what we do is. We can see big and small retailers struggling to pivot to multi-channel Many stores had online sales that made up 40% or more of revenue, but they also had to bear the burden of retail stores. Retail stores cost more per square foot to rent, furnish, and maintain. They also cost more to staff: a warehouse person need not be a people person and a snazzy dresser; they can exhibit anger management issues and ...
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Online advertising is great for brands. It's bad for: indie stores.
Why? Before the Internet, there were few ways for brands to cut out stores. They may have an annual warehouse sale, but that was about it. Today, a customer visits a retailer website and looks at brand X. Or it visits brand X's site to do some research. The issue for indie stores: thanks to online advertising, now I'm being marketed to across the web. I'm reading news on the New York Post website and being encouraged to...
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2020 was another tough year for retail after 2019, but there was some silver lining in that consumers moved money from trips to tabletop.
Excerpt:
"Therein lies something of a challenge for retail: The previous near-complete evaporation of consumer spending on entertainment and leisure freed up funds for the purchase of goods," Weinswig said.